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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:
- "fiduciary agent" (real lotteries do not use a "claim agent" / "fiduciary agent")
- "you are advice to " (this email uses bad English)
- "fta@administrativos.com" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- This email message is a fake lottery scam. Consider the following facts about real lotteries:
- They don't notify winners by email.
- You can't win without first buying a lottery ticket.
- They don't randomly select email addresses to award prizes to.
- They don't use free email accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) to communicate with you.
- They don't tell you to call a mobile phone number.
- They don't tell you to keep your winnings secret.
- They will never ask a winner to pay any fees to receive a prize!
- This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
Fraud email example:
From: "Commonwealth Group" <info@za.addgin.ga>
Reply-To: mabutdengjok@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2019 16:30:03 -0700
Subject: Last Notification From: Commonwealth Bank Group
Greetings !!!
This is to inform you that your last winning prize money with Commonwealth Bank email ballot system of your outstanding contracts/inheritance and lottery Winning due for payment will be cancel soon. You name and emails address was discovered as next on the list for payment of ($2.5M)Two Million Five Hundred Thousand usd You are advice to contact our Fiduciary agent as soon as possible for your payment.
Contact our agent/foreign financial consultant with your details to enable us pay you send your 1.Full Name 2.Residential Address 3.Age 4, Occupation 5. Direct Telephone Numbers for bank transfer include your bank details as soon as you receive this email Your immediate respond is urgently Needs.You are also advised to provide him with your Ref number for claim.No: 002pwyz2019 Amount:2.5M usd.
(Claim Agent/financial consultant) Contact person:
NAME: Andrea Van
EMAIL: fta@administrativos.com
Telephone: +44 797 835 8915
Commonwealth Bank Group
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Anti-fraud resources: