|
|
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:
- 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.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Grace Ama <graceama1980@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Grace Ama <graceama1980@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2017 00:34:50 +0900 (JST)
Subject: Re: Donation for Charity Work
Hi dear,
Â
My
name is Mrs. Grace Ama, I am widow having lost my husband to the power
of death in 2014. We married for many years but we have no child. I am
from Australia but
presently living in Cote d’Ivoire a small African country. I lived with
my husband here for years before he died. My husband was a businessman
that traded on cocoa exportation and he made money. Since we have no
children, we agreed together to use our
money to build charity/orphanage homes to house thousands of orphans
and also help the less privilege. In the wake to carry out this project,
my husband died. The shock of his death left me with distress and
sorrow with a heavy blow because he was my all. Base on the love we
have for each other, I took the decision never to remarry. But now, I
have a serious health challenge in
that I was diagnosis of cancer of the lungs and chest with partial
stroke on my leg which doctors said I will not live more than 4 months
from now. This is why I am contacting you so that I can through you
donate this funds to the less privilege and orphanages and then
accomplish our wish and desire to help orphans. The money is in the bank
in the amount of USD $3.5M. I will hand over the documents of the funds
to you as soon as I see your seriousness to carry on with this project.
I am still lying in the hospital bed from where I now write you. I want
you to do everything fast to have this fund transferred toyou before I
die. I don’t want the bank to claim the fund. Please be honest to me;
are you ready to do this for me because it is my last wish/desire on
earth before I die? I hope you are ready to do what I am asking you to
do?
Mrs. Grace Ama.
|
Anti-fraud resources:
