419 scam: Customer Care Unit <ian.borland2@virgin.net> Very Important, Please Read.

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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.
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:
- "money laundering" ("anti-terrorist", "anti-money laundering" or "drug-free" certificates are a common way for criminals in fake lottery scams and other Advance Fee scams to get you to send money to them. There are no such certificates in the real banking world. )
- "atm card department" (this phrase is often used in the ATM card payment scam)
- "million dollars" (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)
- "economic and financial crime commission" (This name is often mentioned in money recovery scams (re-scam): the real EFCC does not contact victims to offer to get their money back because that is near impossible. )
- "economic and financial crimes commission" (This name is often mentioned in money recovery scams (re-scam): the real EFCC does not contact victims to offer to get their money back because that is near impossible. )
- "(efcc)" (This name is often mentioned in money recovery scams (re-scam): the real EFCC does not contact victims to offer to get their money back because that is near impossible. )
- "abuja" (a location commonly mentioned 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.
- payment_unit101@accountant.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: Customer Care Unit <ian.borland2@virgin.net>
Reply-To: payment_unit101@accountant.com
Date: Thu, 26 Nov 2015 22:38:26 +0100
Subject: Very Important, Please Read.

Economic & Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC)
EFCC Head Quarters, Abuja, Nigeria.
My Name is Mr. Ibrahim Mustafa Magu the new acting Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission
chairperson in Nigeria.

Good day,
First we introduce this commission; economic & financial crimes
commission (EFCC) we fight cyber crime fraud scam money laundering in
Africa. Our commission has been in existences since 2004.

Our duties are to stop internet fraud scam. As for today we have put a
lot of fraudsters behind bars, a lot of them are in jail we go all
over Africa, Europe & Asia to pick these thief's.

We have over 687 of them in our jails round Africa, Europe & Asia and
we are still looking for more, we are aware that a lot of foreigners
out there have been deceived tricked and lost a lot of money to this
fraudsters after promising you percentages in their letters for you to
help them move funds at the end of the day, they will collect
thousands of dollars from you making you a poor person.

All the African, Europe & Asia crime fighters leaders has come
together to inform the world what is going on now and we have recover
over $322 million dollars(three hundred and twenty two million
dollars) from the people we have behind bars. The only reason we are
writing you this letter, is because your name was given to us by one
of the fraudsters in our jail house, that he collected money from by
tricks.

Our action now is to refund back money to foreigners who lost money to
these thiefs. We are paying back from the money we recovered. We can
only refund you if your name is mentioned,If this letter gets to you
then you are mentioned.

But if it gets to you by mistake and you have not lost any money then
please disregard it. we have release the sum of 5.8million dollars to
you because your names has been mentioned via an ATM card that you
will use to withdraw the total sum of 5.8million dollars. You are
therefore advice to contact the Head of ATM CARD Department and
Foreigner Operations.

Contact this Persons: E-mail address:(payment_unit101@accountant.com)
Mr.Duncan Yakubu and inform him that you received a message from the
ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL CRIME COMMISSION(EFCC) instructing him to send
you the ATM CARD and PIN NUMBER which you will use to withdraw your
USD$5.8Million Dollars in any ATM SERVICE MACHINE in any part of the
world, also send him your direct phone number and contact address
where you want him to send the ATM CARD and PIN NUMBER to.
Thanks for adhering to this instruction and once again accept our
congratulations.

Regards,
Ibrahim Mustafa Magu
Chair person,
EFCC.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam