|
|
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:
- "million british pounds" (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 next of kin scam.
- 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.
- tomhart010@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Dr. Tom Hart" <zuzana@petrakova.cz>
Reply-To: tomhart010@yahoo.com
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2015 01:26:59 +0100
Subject: Please Urgent =?UTF-8?Q?Respond=3F?=
--
ATTENTION
REQUEST FOR URGENT TRANSFER
I am Dr Tom Hart the chief Manager of Auditing and Accounting
department
of a bank here in London. In my department, I discovered an abandoned
sum of BGP12 Million British pounds (twelve Million British pounds) in
an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers who died in an
accident.
I need someone with a foreign account to be able to receive this money,
even an empty account can serve to claim this money. Should you be
willing to complete this transaction, Reply me back with your
information and your private phone Number for easy and effective
communication and location on my private email: tomhart010@yahoo.com
At the conclusion of the transfer 40% for me and 40% for you, 10% for
charity both in my country and in your country while the remaining 10%
will be set aside to settle expenses both parties might insure during
the transfer process.
Upon receipt of your reply, I will give you more details on this
transaction trusting to hear from you.
I await your response.
Regards,
Dr Tom Hart
|
Anti-fraud resources:
