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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "barrister" (Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
- Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.
- 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.
- akirienyi1970@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: akiri enyi <akirienyi1970@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 15:07:10 +0000
Subject: Urgent Reply
Dear Friend,
I am Barrister Akiri Enyi .I am an attorney.I am in an urgent need of your
assistance and co-operation to arrange and transfer from Bank of he
operated $ 9.500,000. to your account as a next of kin to a deceased client
of mine who died in 2003. since you share the same last name with him.I
will give you more details when I hear from you at my :
akirienyi1970@gmail.com
I will give you %40 of the total sum for your assistance when the money is
transferred to your account.I promise and give you a 100% guarantee and
assurance there will never be any problem for you in this transaction.I
will give you more details when I hear from you at my
akirienyi1970@gmail.com
Regards
Barrister.Akiri Enyi.
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Anti-fraud resources: