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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:
- "economic and financial crime commission" (This name is often mentioned in money recovery scams (re-scam): the real EFCC does not contact victims to offer to get their money back because that is near impossible. )
- "(efcc)" (This name is often mentioned in money recovery scams (re-scam): the real EFCC does not contact victims to offer to get their money back because that is near impossible. )
- "power of attorney" (with your bank details and a power of attorney form criminals sometimes empty bank accounts)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- Barristers (lawyers) mentioned in 419 scams are always fake.
- 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: Mr Timothy <jamieken@sify.com>
Reply-To: speedtrustcompan1@qatar.io
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2010 12:46:41 -0400
Subject: ATTENTION: THIS IS VERY URGENT.
ATTENTION;
We received an email from one Mr. Larry Ben Nam who presented a bank name and a telephone number with a resident address.Stating that you gave him the power of attorney to make your claims that you are not able to complete the deal.
Please try and get back to us immediately before we instruct him to pay for the required charges and have the fund transferred to him.And he agree to paid the fee today so we are very happy OK but we want to confirm from you before we proceeded because you are delaying and you are joking with the deal since but i don't want to loose this fund i invested on this deal and i will forward his name and the address to the ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL CRIME COMMISSION (EFCC) Office as soon as i hear from you and we will go court to make the changing of ownership so get back asap so that we can finished this deal.
Below is the information's he sent to us.
Name : Mr. Larry Ben
Address: Kemuning Ray Street NO.7
Tomang.Jakarta.Indonesia
Bank Name: Bank International Indonesia
Bank Address : M.H.Thamrin Street
NO.51.Jakarta.Indonesia
Routing No : C H 2 8 1 0 1 3
Swift Code : I B B K I D J A
Account Number :RKK-9900-1024-6002 (USD Account)
Your urgent response will be highly appreciated.
Regard; Mr Timothy
Treat with urgency, please Call us +22998836885
We await your urgent compliance to this e-mail.
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