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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.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "dr.dan" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <dan.odiahpedro@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2011 00:03:39 +0100
Subject: investment in your country
Dear sir,
Here in Africa we work in Government department responsible for contracts.Some years ago we gave out foreign contracts most of which were grossly over-invoiced to the tone of USD28.6M.This money has been approved for payment by the central bank and thus this contact.
REASONS FOR OUR CONTACT AND HOW IT WORKS:
1) To solicit your assistance to receive this money ie USD28.6M in your bank account
2)To seek your advice on what to invest on in your country
3) As civil servants we are forbidden from having huge sums in our account or operate foreign accounts
We shall give you 20% of the total sum for your collaboration.We await your reply today.Thanks.
Yours,
Dr.Dan-Pedro Jason.Odiah
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Anti-fraud resources: