|
|
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: JOHN MARK <azexaz@verizon.net>
Reply-To: john_mark1002004@yahoo.com
Date: Fri, 7 May 2010 09:02:24 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: FROM MR JOHN MARK
Attention Sir/Madam,
I am Mr JOHN MARK, I Work in INLAND Bank Plc I have a vital information about an unclaimed fund under my custody,Please get back to me with your complete data if interested as I shall provide to you all necessary claim documents of this fund. worth of (26.5m Dollars).
I am looking forward to hear from you for more details.Get back to me urgent
Yours sincerely,
JOHN MARK
|
Anti-fraud resources:
