|
|
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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "trunk box" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "trunk boxes" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "million united states dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- 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.
- allenjeff616@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: Jeff Allen <willsonasamoah5@gmail.com>
Reply-To: allenjeff616@yahoo.com
Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2014 08:45:21 -0800
Subject: Kindly get back to me if you have any interest.
Dear Friend,
I am Mr. Jeff Allen am a single dad, I work as a senior Sailing
Officer with military Cargo ship, I sent this mail from our ship on
top of the ocean. I have a very urgent and important project to
discuss with you. I am looking for a serious business partner. Me and
my colleague discovered two metallic trunk boxes in our ship's engine
room when we are fixing some technical fault containing 35kg of gold
bars and USD8.6 million United States Dollars. The two metallic trunk
boxes are deposited with a financial firm before we embarked on this
journey.
I am looking for a reliable person who I can entrust these two
metallic trunk boxes into his/her care for investments in his/her
country until I arrive from my trip. I am contacting you to stand on
my behalf for the release of these boxes due to some urgent message
from the financial firm because the situation of my job at the moment
will not allow me to lay hands on them right now.
All I am asking of you is to provide me with the following details
below to enable me draft an application letter which you will send to
the company as my foreign business partner for the release of the
boxes to you but before that I have to introduce you to the company as
my foreign business partner so they will recognize you as soon as you
contact them.
Below are the required details:
1- Full Name
2- Home/Office Addresses
3- Telephone Number
4- Age and Marital Status
5- Any Sort of ID
6- Occupation
Kindly get back to me if you have any interest.
Your faithful,
Mr Jeff Allen
Senior Sailing officer
Military Cargo Ship.
Email me at: allenjeff616@yahoo.com
|
Anti-fraud resources:
