|
|
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:
- "inheritance funds" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "dear beneficiary," (this SPAM email was probably sent to thousands of people)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: "US TREASURY DEPARTMENT" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <ustreasurydept01@secretarias.com>
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2012 07:58:13 -0700
Subject: Dear Valued Beneficiary
Dear Beneficiary,
My Name is Mrs. Sandra Geithner here in the US Treasury department.
The reason why I am contacting you was in respect of your inheritance payment valued at US$12.5Million that was diverted to World Bank by the greedy bank officials in London. After they deposited your inheritance funds to World Bank, they claim that you are dead and that you have authorize one Mr. Dennis Morris to claim the funds on your behalf. The reason why I am contacting you is to find out if actually you are dead or alive as we have stop the world bank not to release your funds until we get your response.
Furthermore, Kindly furnish us your contact details and mailing address to enable us be reaching you from time to time until we instruct the world bank to release your inheritance funds to your any bank of your choice. Finally, as soon as you get this message, kindly respond back to me immediately so that I will direct you on further procedure. I will advise you to stop further contact with all those fake bank officials until we resolve your funds release with World Bank accordingly.
I wait for your kind response.
Mrs. Sandra Geithner
US TREASURY DEPARTMENT.
|
Anti-fraud resources:
