419 scam: "FedEx Courier Company" <info@fedexcourier.com> Confirm Your ATM Visa Card FedEx Shipment Package

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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:
- "good day friend" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- "clearance certificate" (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. )
- "security keeping fee" (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. )
- "clearance certificate" (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. )
- "fiduciary agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "claims agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "million united states 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)
- ",000,000" (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)
- "courier company" (Courier companies mentioned in 419 scams are always fake. They will have you send money to them, but won't deliver anything. )
This email message is a fake lottery scam. Consider the following facts about real lotteries:
1. They don't notify winners by email.
2. You can't win without first buying a lottery ticket.
3. They don't randomly select email addresses to award prizes to.
4. They don't use free email accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) to communicate with you.
5. They don't tell you to call a mobile phone number.
6. They don't tell you to keep your winnings secret.
7. They will never ask a winner to pay any fees to receive a prize!

Fraud email example:

From: "FedEx Courier Company" <info@fedexcourier.com>
Reply-To: mr.jerry.benard1@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2010 03:22:04 -0300 (BRT)
Subject: Confirm Your ATM Visa Card FedEx Shipment Package

===============FedEx Courier Company==================

Good Day Friend,

We have been waiting for you to contact us for your Confirmable ATM Visa
Card Parcel that is registered with us for shipping to your residential
location. We had thought that your sender gave you our contact details so
that you can quickly come and pick it up without informing you. we cannot
quote its content to you via email for Privacy reasons we understand that
the content of your parcel contained ATM Visa Card worth the sum of One
Million United States Dollars ($1,000,000 USD) which will be deliver to
you at the moment as long as you provide all the requirement to the FedEx
Express company before the parcel can be shipped to your own residential
address in your country.

Furthermore, you might be asking yourself how comes this email, your ATM
Visa Card was brought to this office by a Lottery Fiduciary Agent Or
Claims Agent, signifying that you are a rightful winner to their Lottery
Award selected randomly from 1000 lucky email addresses which your email
address is one of the lucky email address. What you have to do now, is to
contact our Delivery Department for immediate dispatch to your residential
address.

For your information, the VAT & Shipping charges as well as Insurance fees
have been paid by the Lottery Fiduciary Company and the icon insurance
company of Nigeria has finalized everything before your package was
registered. The payment that was made on the Insurance, Premium &
Clearance Certificates was to certify that the Bank ATM Visa Card fund is
not a Drug Affiliated Fund (DAF) neither is it funds to sponsor Terrorism
in your country this will help you to avoid any form of query from the
Monetary Authority in your country and you must compensate the FedEx
Express company by paying the security fee which they used in protecting
your ATM Visa Card fund Parcel. You will have to pay the sum of $175 USD
to the FedEx Delivery Department being full payment for the Security
Keeping Fee of the FedEx Company as stated in our privacy terms &
condition page.

Also be informed that the Lottery Fiduciary company wished you to pay for
the Security Keeping charges, but we do not accept such payment
considering the facts that all items & packages that is registered with us
having a time limitation and we cannot accept payment having known not
when you will be picking up the package or even responding to us. So we
cannot take the risk to have accepted such payment incase of any possible
demurrage.

Note: The Money can not be deducted from the parcel because the Lottery
Fiduciary Company (L.F.C) advise us that you must pay for the security
keeping fees before we can deliver the ATM Visa Card parcel to you, the
Lottery board did not leave us with any further information because we
hope that you we respond to us as soon as possible because if you fail to
respond until the expiry date of this package, we may refer the package to
the British Commission for Welfare as the package do not have a return
address.

Kindly provide the delivery information require below. This is mandatory
to reconfirm your Postal address and telephone numbers.
=====================================
FUNDS RELEASED AND VERIFICATION FORM
=====================================
FULL NAMES:
TELEPHONE:
POSTAL ADDRESS:
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
SEX (M/F):
AGE:
OCCUPATION:
NEXT OF KINS:
========================================

As soon as your details are received, our delivery team will give you the
necessary payment procedure so that you can effect the payment for the
Security Keeping Fees. lmmediately we confirm your payment of $175 USD,
they will not hesitate to dispatch your ATM Visa Card parcel as well as
the attached letter to your residence. It usually takes 24 hours being an
over night delivery service.

Note: that we were not instructed to email you, but due to the high
priority of your ATM Visa Card fund Parcel we had to inform you through
the letter that was attach in your parcel.

Await your reply.

Yours Faithfully,
Mr. Jerry Benard
(FedEx Dispatched Officer).

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam