|
|
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:
- "is 100% risk free" (almost true for the criminal trying to scam you - arrests of online criminals are rare)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Ayub Bello <mh81f@voila.fr>
Reply-To: mh81f@yahoo.fr
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 06:27:42 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: I NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE URGENT
Good day!
How are you, I hope all is well, It’s just my urgent need for foreign
partner that made me to contact you for assistance I am the manager
in charge of Auditing and Accounting unit of the bank.
I discover an abounded fund ($11.6 million) of one of our bank
clients who died in crash since seven years ago and none of his
family member or relation has come for the claim, and now the bank
is planning on how to confiscate the fund since no one has come for
the claim. Please without wasting time I need your assistance and
your honest and humanity to execute this transaction under your kind
control for the mutual benefit of our both families.
Hence I am inviting you for this deal you will have 40% of the
amount mentioned above as my patina, please if you are sure that you
are capable to handle this transaction and you are ready to assist me
to execute this business with trust and honest than the further details
of the transfer will be forwarded to you as soon as i receive your
positive respond.
Please note that the claims is 100% risk free.
Have a great day.
Thanks
|
Anti-fraud resources:
