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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "moneygram" (this will cost you money - be careful with upfront payments to anyone you only know through email, especially if they promise you a lot of money. NEVER send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally - NO EXCEPTIONS! Instant wire transfer services are not meant to be used with strangers because they offer no protection against fraud. That is precisely why the criminals want you send money that way. )
- "money gram" (this will cost you money - be careful with upfront payments to anyone you only know through email, especially if they promise you a lot of money. NEVER send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally - NO EXCEPTIONS! Instant wire transfer services are not meant to be used with strangers because they offer no protection against fraud. That is precisely why the criminals want you send money that way. )
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- MoneyGram money transfer is completely untraceable and therefore is *not* safe to use with anyone you do not know personally. Along with Western Union it is a preferred method of online criminals to collect money from their victims.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. John Odogu" <aestevez@arnet.com.ar>
Reply-To: <moneygramcenter0@ok.de>
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2017 01:43:34 -0800
Subject: Attention:Customer,
Attention:Customer,
Your first Payment of $6000 usd is approved to send to you today, So
kindly reconfirm your receiver's name information to
the money gram office for the approval of your fund payment of
($2.700`000`00USD) to be sign and release to you immediately
you send the below information to them:
Note that your payment files will be returned to the IMF within 24
hours this is the instruction given to us by the IMF.
Your Receiver's: _______
Your Country:__________
Your Telephone No:_______
Your Address: _________
Your Passport Id: ________
Contact Money Gram Office
Name: Agent LeeAnn Piskule
Email: (moneygramcenter0@ok.de)
Our Money Gram Office will release your payment to you and the maximum
amount you receiving each day from today is $6000
usd daily until the funds complete ransferred. Once we receive your
information. The transfer will commence. The IMF is
compensating all the scam victims ($2.700`000`00USD) each, and your
email address was found in the scam victim's list.
Mr. John Odogu
The (IMF Office)
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Anti-fraud resources: