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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:
- "escrow account with no beneficiary" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "there are practically no risks involved" (almost true for the criminal trying to scam you - arrests of online criminals are rare)
- "foreign exchange" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "I. O. Babatunde" <isholababs120277@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: zxcjames@hotmail.com
Date: Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:43:01 +0000
Subject: Reply Urgently
Greetings,
My name is I. O. Babatunde I am 46 years old married with two lovely
kids. I am
a man of peace and I don't want problems only hope we can work together for a
common goal. If you don't want this proposal I will not contact you again.
I have packaged a financial transaction that will Benefit both of us as the
Regional Manager of the Department of Foreign Exchange Department Zenith Bank
Nigeria Plc, it is my duty to send in a financial report to my Head Office at
the end of each business year. On the course of the last business report I
discovered that my branch in which I am the branch manager made Thirty-Five
Million Five Hundred Thousand Dollars $35,500.000.00 which my Head Office are
not aware of and will never be aware of it.
I have placed this funds on what we call Escrow Account with no
beneficiary. As
an officer of this bank I cannot be directly connected to this money this
informed my contacting you. Indeed I will appreciate if you can receive this
money in your possession and get 20% of the
total funds as disburse as instructed There are practically no risks involved
all I need from you is to stand claim as one of our customer who has been
banking with us and the depositor of this funds with my branch so that
upon your
request for its immediate transfer my head Office will not hesitate
to transfer
to your designated bank account.
If you accept to work with me I will appreciate it very much and advice you
expedite by sending your reply through my private Email ID: for us to discuss
more details. isholababs_000077@ymail.com
Yours Faithfully
I. O. Babatunde
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