|
|
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:
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- 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.
- robertnicholas@ciudad.com.ar (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: Internet Fraud Unit <info@interpol.org>
Reply-To: <robertnicholas@ciudad.com.ar>
Date: Sat, 08 Dec 2012 14:43:31 +0000
Subject: Urgent!!
--
Good Day
This is the internet fraud unit of the Interpol police; we are mandated
by
the British High Commission and the FBI to combat internet fraud. Our
monitoring device picked up several signal transaction on your server
and
since then we have been monitoring all your internet transaction and we
have discovered that you have been into series of transaction.
From our investigation you have been into a transaction worth of
millions
of dollars which you have spent money on, and you have been dealing
with
the wrong people. A compensation of six hundred and fifty thousand
united
state dollars ($650,000.00) has been allocated to all Americans,
Arabians,
Europeans, Canadians and Asian citizen who have been scammed and
harassed
on the internet. We are also backed up by the UNITED NATIONS and have
been
investigating emails directed to selected individuals.
We want to clear your doubts; you are to continue your transaction with
Robert Nicholas (robertnicholas@ciudad.com.ar)of the compensation
payment
department immediately. Please you are to notify us when you receive
this
email. You are not to disclose this information to a third party as we
are
on the trail to get all perpetrators of cyber crime.
Thank you for your understanding
Faithfully
Bryan Anderson
Head Internet Fraud Unit.
|
Anti-fraud resources:
