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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 message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Ghana Interpol <interpol_ghana1010@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2012 09:05:21 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Attention your consignment were recorved from some thiefs
Am Mr. Charles kofi the head Interpol Accra-Ghana
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We are contacting you in respect of five boxes which was about to ship out of the country but my officer got to know that these people have fake name and the boxes all belongs to you so we have to arrested them because they claim to us that they are the owner of the boxes which your name showâs as the owner.
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We would want you to come down to Ghana as we have too much complains about scammers which are all trying to claim that they have your boxes .
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We will want you to come down to Ghana and get all your boxes once.
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Regards
 Charles kofi
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Anti-fraud resources: