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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.
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "Dominique" <domitchell3@gmail.com>
Reply-To: <dmitchell113@outlook.com>
Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2017 07:06:21 -0000
Subject: Re: Hello
Hello,
My name is Mr. Dominique Mitchell , i am a banker and the personal account manager to one of our deceased customer of your nationality who worked with an oil servicing company here in Cote DIvoire (PETRO.IVOIRE), the deceased client made a numbered time fixed deposit valued at US$ 8.7 Million in our bank branch office here before his demise.
consequently, the account is without any registered next of kin and the fund now have open beneficiary mandate. I am therefore soliciting for your assistance to come forward as the Next of Kin for the procuring of the outstanding sum of US$ 8.7 Million which has been lying idle in a trust account with our bank since the fund has overstayed and due for recovery otherwise it will be covered by the bank as an unclaimed fund and be returned to the government treasury vault for their usage.
I shall give you more details related to this transaction as soon as i receive your positive response to execute this lucrative business with me.
I look forward to your positive response for more details.
Regards,
Mr. Dominique.
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Anti-fraud resources: