419 scam: "Mr. Tony Smith"<mfranciszkiewicz@o2.pl> From: Rev. Tony Smith of Christian Evangelical Church

joewein.net

joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet

Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days

Home

About Us

Spam

419/Nigeria

Fraud

Contact

"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.
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "hundred thousand us dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "00,000.00" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
This email message is a "New Partner from Paraguay" scam.
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.
- tonysmith567@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "Mr. Tony Smith" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <tonysmith567@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2010 08:56:52 +0100
Subject: From: Rev. Tony Smith of Christian Evangelical Church

My Dear,

I'm happy to inform you about my success in getting those funds transfered under the cooperation of a new partner from Paraguay. Presently I'm in South Korea for investment projects with my own share of the total sum, meanwhile, I didn't forget your past efforts and attempts to assist me in transferring those funds despite that it failed us some how. Now contact my Pastor in Nigeria his name is Rev. Tony Smith of Christian Evangelical Church with his direct phone number: 0112347092365010 or on his email address: tonysmith567@gmail.com, ask him to send you the sum of $300,000.00 (three hundred thousand US dollars) which I kept for you as compensation for all your past efforts and attempts to assist me in this matter.

I appreciated your efforts at that time very much, so feel free and get in touch with him and instruct him where to send the money for you.

Please do let me know immediately you receive it so that we can share the joy after all the stress at that time, in the moment, I'm very busy here because of the investment projects which me and the new partner are having at hand.Finally, remember that i have forwarded instruction to him on your behalf to receive those money, so feel free to get in touch with him to send the money to you without delay, try to call him on his phone number: 0112347092365010 as soon as you receive this email, it is very important that you speak with him.

With best regards,

Rev. Tony Smith

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam