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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:
- "central bank of nigeria" (the name of a person or institution often appearing 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: "Mustaph Dangote" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mustaph.dangote@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2017 21:25:44 +0800
Subject: Unclaimed Deposit.
I am Mustaph Dangote the International remittance director central bank of Nigeria ( CBN ). My office monitors and controls the affairs of all banks and Financial institutions in Nigeria concerned with foreign contract payments . I am the final signatory to any transfer or remittance of huge funds moving within banks both on the local and international levels in line with foreign contracts settlement.
I have before me list of funds, which could not be transferred to some nominated accounts as these accounts have been identified either as ghost accounts, unclaimed deposits and over-invoiced sum etc. I want a deal with you. Your name will be put as one of the legal beneficiaries of funds to be transfered into their account, on this note; I want to have an understanding with you as regards this fund. I have all the files before me and hope to fix your data's correctly as one of the beneficiaries on receipt of your consent.
As the person whose duty it is to recommend the transfer of these surplus funds ( unclaimed deposit ) to the Federal Government Treasury and Reserve Accounts, I have decided to write you based on the instructions i received few days ago from the Senate Committee on Contract / Foreign Debts to submit the List of payment / expenditures and audited reports of revenues.
I decided to bring you into this deal because of the challenge we have as civil servants that are prohibited by the Code of Conduct Bureau (Civil Service Laws) from opening and/or operating foreign accounts in our names, and not wanting to miss this opportunity of making some money for ourseves to take care of our retirement period. All i want to do is to get some of these unclaimed payments into your account before i submite the rest to the senate committee that will inveriably direct all others such fund to be returned to the federal government coffers.
Further details shall be Communicated to you on receipt of your respones.
Best Regards,
Mustaph Dangote.
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