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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "u.k " (this email uses bad English)
- This email message is a next of kin 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.
- jr1@megamail.pt (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: J R <jjrr11a@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Sat, 29 May 2010 13:30:48 +0000
Subject: Jerrold
Hello,
I am Attorney to one foreigner and an Engineer with one Construction Company here in London. The deceased has an account with a Bank here, which he opened in 2003. He died here in U.K 2004, I received a memo from the Bank remittance department for an interview about $14M USD that belongs to my Late client,the bank informed me on their policy to freeze the account belonging to my client, I was asked to redirect the ($14m usd) back to government treasury because they saw no next of kin in his entire file within the bank and his account has been dormant for years which is against the policy of the Bank.
I am contacting you because of the need to involve a foreigner as the foreign beneficiary to that fund.I will give you more details when i receive your positive response.
Regards
Jerrold
jr1@megamail.pt
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Anti-fraud resources: