|
|
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:
- 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:
- "foreign remittance department" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: mary@ens.cablered.com.mx
Reply-To: adb@krovatka.su
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2013 04:13:10 -0700
Subject: Re: RE:Good News From African =?iso-8859-1?Q?Developm=ADent_Bank?=
>From Desk of Foreign Remittance Department
African Development Bank,
( WWW.AFDB.ORG)
No 12 Tinubu Square Benin
E-Mail: adb@krovatka.su
We email to know the reason why you want to leave your fund worths of
$4.2M USD
in our bank. We informed you about this fund some times past years and at
a suden you ignor our mails due to approved fee asked from you.
we want to inform you that the new government of the states has removed
the fee
from all abounded transfer.If you are OK and alive let us know before your
fund
will be turn over to the Government purse.We are waiting for your urgent
mail to
retify and finalize this transfer once for all.
Mrs.Mary Adam
African Development Bank
F.R.D Secretary.
(WWW.AFDB.ORG)
|
Anti-fraud resources:
