|
|
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:
- 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: From Chantal Marvelous <xcd@sta.att.ne.jp>
Reply-To: esosa_m1v@yahoo.co.jp
Date: Wed, 5 May 2010 3:35:34 +0900
Subject: Hello My Dear,
Hello My Dear,
I'm Chantal Marvelous I'm seeking for your attention to assist me in
transferring some amount of money to an account in your country. Due to reason
of under age I can’t do this myself without presenting a foreign account, I
really don’t have a foreign friend as I don’t know more about my late Dad
partnership outside Africa. I will reward you with 10% of the ï¿¡5000.000.00 Five
Million United Kingdom Pounds. I will give you more details when I hear from you
do send me your phone number and a picture of you if you are capable to handle
this, waiting to hear from you soonest.
Chantal Marvelous.
|
Anti-fraud resources:
