|
|
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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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:
- "dear beneficiary," (this SPAM email was probably sent to thousands of people)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- 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.
- lee.david436@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Dr.David Lee" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <lee.david436@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 23 Jul 2011 19:10:39 +0200
Subject: Dear Beneficiary,Get Back To Me For More Details!
Dear Beneficiary,
I hope that this correspondence is received with the urgency and expediency
required.
It has come to the notice of the Board of Trustees at the CBN that your
present inheritance claims application being handled by the Remmitting Bank
in Nigeria is experiencing some man made irregularities.To this effect,it
has become neccesary for the Board of Trustees to invite trained Fund
Transfer Specalists from the United States to resolve and regularize your
fund release with immediate effect.
We at David Lee & Associates have been duly consulted by the CBN Board of
Trustees and have been fully informed about how the staff of the remmitting
bank have been taking advantage of you by telling you to pay unneccesarily
exhorbitant charges which will only make your fund payment a long drawn out
process.
Due to this we have decided to step into the process of your fund transfer
to enable your funds to be transfered within the soonest possible time you
are to get back to us immediatly without needing to pay all the huge sums of
monies that are being demanded from you by the remmitting bank.
All proccesses to have your funds paid to you imediately through the CBN's
Laison Remmittance Office in New York have been initiated to cut out
unneccesary costs.You are advised to keep this communication highly
confidential as the CBN Board of Trustees have asked us to resolve this
fund payment independent of the office of the CBN Gorvernor to identify the
principal participants in this unethical payment procedure.
Furthermore,you are hereby advised to pay no furtherfees or charges to the
Remmitting Bank in Nigeria as they shall no longer be handling your payment
process.
We shall await your immedite correspondence with your direct telephone
numbers for re-confirmation to to my confidential email address
at(lee.david436@gmail.com)so that we may conclude your payment immediately.
Yours Sincerely,
Dr.David Lee
David Lee & Associates c/o CBN.
|
Anti-fraud resources:
