419 scam: "Ms. Monica Ayweh"<westsidecandr@aol.com> Dear beneficiary,

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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:
- "western union" (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. )
- "dear beneficiary," (this SPAM email was probably sent to thousands of people)
- "westerrn.union@w.cn" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
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!
Western Union money transfer is completely untraceable and therefore is *not* safe to use with anyone you do not know personally. It is the preferred method of online criminals to collect money from their victims.

Fraud email example:

From: "Ms. Monica Ayweh" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <msmonicaayweh@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:10:57 -0700
Subject: Dear beneficiary,

Dear beneficiary,

With effect from Federal Ministry of Finance online email draw done last week, your email address was selected as the one of the ten lucky winners of $4.5millions. Intercontinental bank plc was appointed by Federal Ministry of Finance to pay you total ($4,500, 000 millions) which your email address won; we congratulate you as you receive it. So we have left an instruction to Intercontinental bank plc to transfer your fund through western union money transfer or to send you an ATM card with valued $4.5millions.

The chairman, national assembly parliament committee on foreign fund matter has already signed approval for your payment. The sum of $4,000usd will be install mental transferring to you via western union on daily basis. So contact Mr. Jeffery Patrick, the western union cashier of Intercontinental bank plc to start paying you immediately.

Name: Mr. Jeffery Patrick (Western Union Agent)
E-mail: westerrn.union@w.cn

Take note that Intercontinental bank plc is the only financial institution that we instructed to transfer your fund, therefore you should better stop any further communication with any other person(s) or office(s) to avoid getting yourself cheated because it has came to our notice that some group of people has been using this letter to scam innocent people oversea which our law is against. So, send your payment information to him as below: receiver name, address, telephone number, test question and answer.

Comply now by sending this required detail to Mr. Jeffery Patrick, he will start sending $4000 to you daily. E-mail him immediately you receive this message, so that he will attend to you urgently.

Congratulation once again,

Ms. Monica Ayweh.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam