|
|
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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "remain blessed" (scammers in West Africa like to use religious phrases)
- This email message is a "dying widow" scam.
Fraud email example:
From: ALICE MASON <a_massonn@btinternet.com>
Reply-To: alice_mason@yahoo.cn
Date: Sat, 29 May 2010 23:38:04 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: HELLO,FORM Mrs.Alice Mason
Remain Bless in the name of the Lord.
I am Mrs.Alice Mason from latvia. I am married to
Deacon David.C.Mason who served as an Archdeacon in the paroisse saint sebastien Church.
(www.st-sebastien.info) here in ivory coast for twelve years
before he died in 2004. We have been doing our best to promote charity work
anywhere the Lord laid us to. According to KJV(Acts 20:35 ,1Corinthians 13:2).
Since His death in 2004 I have been having Lung Cancer and now my doctor has confirm to me that i would not last for the next 16 Weeks due to the cancer illness.
I have been distributing all i have since the Doctor gave me the notification,so
I am contacting you because I need a trustworthy someone whom I will give my life time savings to help me establish a charity program,I got your contact and prayed over it and I developed confidence and decided to trust you and contact you for this donation.
I what you to help me to use this money,thats the sum of 4.5Million U.S. Dollars which my late husband deposited here in one of the bank for chirty work,because i have decided to donate this fund to any individual that will use it for churches and orphanage. so As soon as I receive your reply I will give you the contact of the bank here in ivory coast.I will also issue you a letter of authority that will empower you as the original- beneficiary of the money.Please always be prayerful
all through your life.and Please assure me that you will do accordingly as I stated herein. Hoping to hearing from you. Remain blessed in the name of the Lord.Yours in
Christ.
Mrs.Alice Mason.
|
Anti-fraud resources:
