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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:
- "cotonou" (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.
Fraud email example:
From: "Yellowbird Brokers Inc" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <22yellowbirdbrokers@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 3 May 2016 07:54:25 +0100
Subject: Your abandoned payment is ready for release
Hello,
This is not a scam. As you read below, you will see that the story is true unless you don't want the money.
We want to let you know that record available to us states that sometime ago, you were contacted by some people who said they wanted to wire some money into your account and you people share at an agreeable ratio. You opened communication with the consulting company then but after sometime, you cut off communication when you were asked to pay certain amount of money to facilitate the transfer of the said fund into your account. That transaction is real. It is not a scam.
Your name has continued to appear in the database of the external debtors in the Head Office of the West Africa Banking Union; the regulatory bank to the Central Banks of the West African Countries. They want to pay you now. You will be paid $500,000 now no matter how much you were previously owed.
We have been appointed as a new consultant to liaise with you in re-processing the payment. You either come to our office in Cotonou Benin Republic to re-process your payment or we send a form to you to fill and return to us and we reprocess on your behalf.
Whichever option you have chosen, it will take us five working days to re-process your payment and pay you either by cashier check or wire transfer depending your choice.
Let us know if you want to re-process your payment or you will decline the offer.
Waiting for your reply
Smith Jason
CEO
Yellowbird Brokers Inc.
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L'absence de virus dans ce courrier électronique a été vérifiée par le logiciel antivirus Avast.
http://www.avast.com
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Anti-fraud resources:
