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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:
- "million united states dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "await your urgent response" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: foreign funds and affairs <idktownnews@gmail.com>
Reply-To: d.morrisdavid@gmail.com
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 2020 07:53:25 +0100
Subject: MATTER OF URGENCY
Good day approved beneficiary,
This is Dr Morris David From the Department of foreign Funds Affairs, We
are Writing to confirm the fact if you are (DEAD) or (ALIVE) and failure to
reply back in the next 24hrs simply means what Mrs Lucy Doss said was
right that you are dead. Mrs Lucy Doss has agreed to pay the balance
charge fee valued of $240 required for the Release Order of your
$2.000.000.00 Empowerment fund , but we have not gotten the money from her
yet as we want to find out if you are DEAD or not, so if you are still
(ALIVE) you are advice in your own best interest to reply back.
We are confused over your attitude on this $2.000.000.00, we have
started to wonder if someone else is about to have what is yours. Please
reply back or else we take our decision by releasing the $2 Million United
states Dollars to her. We await your urgent feedback.
As soon as the $240 is received, we shall immediately dispatch your
empowerment fund to you and it will take only 3 days to arrive at your
address to enable you to start withdrawing funds the same day from any ATM
machine nearest to you. Thanks for your good understanding and we are
waiting for your quick reply with but first kindly confirm your details
below to confirm if we reached the right owner of this prepaid visa card.
Firstly reconfirm your full information below so we can verify if we
reached the approved beneficiary of this empowerment fund.
Your current home address...Your postal codes....Your phone number....Your
full name....Your country of residence....Your occupation...Your current
email address.. Your government issued Id card
We await your urgent response.
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