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joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam
The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.
Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.
Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!
Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.
Click here to report a problem with this page.
Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:
- This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Stephen Hester" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <stephenh1@sify.com>
Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2012 22:29:08 +0800
Subject: Please read and reply
Hello ,
I have made series of efforts to reach you on telephone concerning your safe deposit which was discovered with our trust firm.
I discovered that your safe deposit was floating in our record with our financial firm (my branch) and the safe deposit could not be transferred because of lack of proof for the source of the deposit also the transfer was not authorized by you since your name was in the document.
I had to trace the documents to find out that the safe deposit original belongs to you and I decided to contact you so that you can have a smooth claiming. I will appreciate if you can offer me 5% of the total value so that I will work with you concerning this issue.
The provide you with the safe deposited information and if you accept the agreement of offering me 5% of the value in cash then we can work and I will guard you on the step on how you can get the safe deposit released and you will request for door to door delivery of the safe deposit to your given address or you can request for a better option of your chioce
I will be waiting for your return email once you accept my proposal.You can email me back with your telephone number so I can call you at better time for deep conversation on how to move forward.
Thanks
Yours faithfully
Mr. Stephen Hester.
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Anti-fraud resources: