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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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- ",000,000" (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)
- "00,000.00" (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.
Fraud email example:
From: no-reply@drivethrustuff.com
Reply-To: ms4129558@gmail.com
Date: Sat, 25 Apr 2015 02:55:45 -0700
Subject: Re: Thanks
Hi,
I want to consider that as a lawyer you will really be of help and your expertise will be able to complete my request evenly.
My Name is Mark Schmidt; I was dismissed from Chase in 2012 because I do some extra deals within the bank. My sack earned me a two years jail terms and on return a company account of mine which had $78,000,000.00 in it went dormant.
All I am requesting of you is that you represent my company as the CEO/owner of fund to complete the account activation and complete evacuation of the above mentioned from the account without involving or making reference to me so that the bank doesn't discover the actual fund owner.
I will give you all the details required to make this deal successful. You can also keep 20% of the fund when the deal is complete and pass the 80% to me.
I will guide you step by step until the deal is completed call me letâs talk: +1(303)732-3549; I think I can explain better face to face or on call.
Please help me out
Mark Schmidt
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Anti-fraud resources: