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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:
- "from the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "dear beneficiary," (this SPAM email was probably sent to thousands of people)
- "(ecowas)" (the name of a person or institution often appearing in 419 scams)
- "lagos" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- "efcc_nig_dept11@live.ca" (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.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr Ibrahim Lamorde" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <efcc_nig_dept11@live.ca>
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2012 22:23:31 +0100
Subject: [Spam] FROM THE DESK OF IBRAHIM LAMORDE
FROM THE DESK OF
MR. IBRAHIM LAMORDE
THE BOSS;ECONOMIC
ANDFINANCIAL CRIMES
COMMISSION (E.F.C.C.)
LAGOS;NIGERIA.
Dear Beneficiary,
Request To Compensate You With The Sum $3.5Million
we are hereby informing you that Our association discovered your name and email address as one
of the victims of fraud In Africa especially in Nigeria, this is as a result of people being
involved in some Illegal and unsolicited business transaction, as directed by Mr. President Dr.
Good-luck Ebele Jonathan, the Federal Government of Nigeria in collaboration with the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has decided to compensate all these Victims who can
be able to reach them with all necessary prove that they were the Victims.
As directed by the management, we are making our compensation with the sum of $3,500
000.00U.S.Dollars (three million five hundred thousand United States of American dollars) as
soon As one or each of the respective candidates reaches he demands with all necessary prove to
Claim their consignment.
We will make this payment with this following options below:
1. DIRECT WIRE TRANSFER
2. ONLINE BANKING TRANSFER
3. ATM CARD
Victims are expected to forward the following informations
-NAME...................
-BANKING DETAILS........
-HOUSE/OFFICE ADDRESS...
-PHONE/TEL NUMBERS......
-LOCATION...............
-AGE....................
-ATTACH INT'L PASSPORT.
We wish to hear from you soonest we are very sorry for the embarrassments and again
congratulations onces more.
Kindly reply back to this our alternative email address efcc_nig_dept11@live.ca.
Yours Faithfully.
MR. IBRAHIM LAMORDE
HEAD OF DEPARTMENT
EFCC NIGERIA.
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Anti-fraud resources: