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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 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.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: PRIVATE BANKING <kingslawsuk@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <tundechristo64@accountant.com>
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 10:44:30 +0100
Subject: GET BACK TO ME
Mr. Christopher Tunde
Private Banking
Zenith Bank Nigeria Plc.
Sir,
Kindly
confirm to me your consent on the application that is made by your
representative to receive your contract payment that has been approved.
In
the last meeting of the contract tender board they agreed that the
Federal ministry of Finance (FMF) should approve a total of $10m USD in
your favor via ATM which will be sent to your door step.
Following
the announcement of this approval we received an application from one
Mr. Victor Lam with a Barclay's Bank account attached.
You are
required to get back to this office to confirm this because we have
limited working time as the year is running to an end.
Yours in service,
Mr. Christopher Tunde
Private Banking
Zenith Bank Nigeria Plc.
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Anti-fraud resources: