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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:
- "will come to you as a surprise" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- 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.
- ahmedhssn24@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: felicia ikule <felicialikule@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Mar 2015 12:33:56 +0000
Subject: Re: Confidential Business Proposal
ATTENTION PLS!
Please I want you to read this letter very carefully and I must
apologize for barging this message into your mail box without any
formal introduction due to the urgency of this issue. I know that
this message will come to you as a surprise but please this is not a
joke and I will not like you to joke with it.
I am Mr. Ahmed Hassan, the Auditing and Accounting manager of Bank of
Africa (B.O.A ANNEX) Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. I Hoped that you will
not expose or betray my trust and confident that I am about to
establish with you for the mutual benefit of our both family. In my
department I discover an abandoned sum of (US$18.2Million) in an
account that belongs to one of our foreign customer who died along
with his family in plane crash.
It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this
business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of
kin or relation to the deceased for the safety and subsequent
disbursement since nobody is coming for it. I agree that 40% of this
money will be for you, and 60% would be for me. Then after the money
is been transferred into your
account, I will visit your country for an investment under your kind control.
You have to contact my Bank directly as the real next of kin of this
deceased account with next of kin application form which I will send
to you immediately I hear from you. All you are required to do now is
to confirm the bellow information through my private email address for
a security reasons (ahmedhssn24@gmail.com) to enable us commence
immediately.
1. Your Full Name:---------------
2. Home Address: ---------------
3. Age & Sex: ---------------------
4. Occupation: --------------------
5. Cell Phone: ---------------------
6. State of Origin: ----------------
7. Country: --------------------------
8: Marital Status: -----------------
Waiting to hear from you soon.
Yours faithfully,
Mr. Ahmed Hassan
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