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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:
- 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:
- "obatmdc@gala.net" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr. Paul Ema" <p.ema777@yahoo.fr>
Reply-To: obatmdc@gala.net
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2010 01:58:04 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: YOUR ATM CARD NOTIFICATION
How are you today?
I wish to inform you that we have made arrangement to send your OCEANIC BANK ATM CARD of $950.000.00USD through secretary Mr Jones Bloom the witness as we have been given the mandate to release the total payment sum via ATM DEBIT CARD. Endeavor to contact Dr. Phil James for your ATM DEBIT CARD procedure.
Therefore, I contacted you so that you could get in touch with Dr. Phil James to make the provision of your ATM DEBIT CARD as soon as possible.
Please, endeavor to make use of these contacts and request for your ATM DEBIT CARD from Dr. Phil James Email: ( obatmdc@gala.net ) Tel: +229-99-22-02-88 and receive it as approval.
Thank you.
Regards,
Mr. Paul Ema.
Funds Credit Auditor.
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Anti-fraud resources:
