|
|
joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
|
|
"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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- emailslt57@yahoo.com.hk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Dan P Reed" <info@mail.com>
Reply-To: emailslt57@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:39:31 -0300
Subject: Urgent Dispatcher Needed!!!
Hello,
How are you doing? I want to be honest with you this is not legal,but I
have a way for you to earn money from home without getting into trouble.
You will not be involved in the cashing of checks because if you do you
will end up getting into trouble with them.
So I have designed this offer specifically for you because I do not want
you to get into trouble, I have contacts everywhere in the USA whom I am
supposed to send these counterfeit checks to but because I'm outside the
USA I’m unable to send them directly to these contacts because it's
cost effective so I need someone who lives in the USA who will help
receive my checks in Bulk and then forward them in single shipments to my
contacts.
You will not face any harm whatsoever as you will not cash any check, only
receive and forward so as to cut down my expense of sending directly from
here. This Offer will be of no monetary expense to you as I will pay for
all shipping costs as well as put you on a very good weekly wage that we
will agree on.
Once you have agreed to work with me, I will forward you a list of all the
contacts as well as my UPS account information which you will need to ship
the checks without spending any money.
If you are interested reply me back via email:emailslt57@yahoo.com.hk ,
thanks and hope to hear from you shortly.I am open to discussions about
your pay also.
Dan.
|
Anti-fraud resources:
