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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:

Fraud email example:

From: "Captain Dave Boris" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <Captain_Dave_Boris@outlook.com>
Date: Sun, 30 Oct 2016 23:04:05 -0700
Subject: You Have One On Read Message.


*****************************************************************
********************** SPAM REPORT MESSAGE **********************
*****************************************************************

Datagate AntiSPAM detection software has identified this incoming
email as possible spam. The original message report has been
attached to this so you can view it (if it isn't spam) or block
similar future email. If you have any questions, please contact
Datagate PostMaster <antispam@postmaster.datagate.net.uk>.

Content preview: Hi, I am writing this email with tears and heavy heart because
of what I am facing here trying to defend the world against terrorist threats.
My colleagues die on daily basis as a result of incessant suicide bombing
and attacks from Isis. [...]

Content analysis details: (9.6 points, 6.0 required)

pts rule name description
---- ---------------------- --------------------------------------------------
0.0 FSL_HELO_NON_FQDN_1 FSL_HELO_NON_FQDN_1
0.0 FSL_CTYPE_WIN1251 Content-Type only seen in 419 spam
0.0 NSL_RCVD_FROM_USER Received from User
0.0 LOTS_OF_MONEY Huge... sums of money
0.0 FROM_MISSP_XPRIO Misspaced FROM + X-Priority
0.0 FROM_MISSP_MSFT From misspaced + supposed Microsoft tool
1.3 RDNS_NONE Delivered to internal network by a host with no rDNS
0.0 FSL_NEW_HELO_USER Spam's using Helo and User
0.0 AXB_XMAILER_MIMEOLE_OL_024C2 Yet another X header trait
0.0 FROM_MISSP_TO_UNDISC From misspaced, To undisclosed
0.0 FROM_MISSP_USER From misspaced, from "User"
0.0 MONEY_FROM_MISSP Lots of money and misspaced From
2.5 FREEMAIL_FORGED_REPLYTO Freemail in Reply-To, but not From
1.0 FREEMAIL_REPLYTO Reply-To/From or Reply-To/body contain different
freemails
0.0 FROM_MISSP_REPLYTO From misspaced, has Reply-To
0.0 FROM_MISSPACED From: missing whitespace
2.8 FORGED_MUA_OUTLOOK Forged mail pretending to be from MS Outlook
0.0 FROM_MISSP_FREEMAIL From misspaced + freemail provider
0.0 MONEY_FRAUD_5 Lots of money and many fraud phrases
2.0 ADVANCE_FEE_2_NEW_MONEY Advance Fee fraud and lots of money


Datagate AntiSPAM Service <antispam@postmaster.datagate.net.uk>
---------------------------------------------------------------



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