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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:
- "you are advice to " (this email uses bad English)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- 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: "Geal Karimama" <geal.karimama@yahoo.fr>
Reply-To: moceni@e-mail.ua
Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2012 23:21:59 +0900
Subject: Re: Your fund has been transferred and the paying bank is waiting for you.
Attention: Sir/Madam,
I am Mr.Geal Karimama,I work with a bank here in my country Republic
of Benin.It is my pleasure to inform you that the sum of (USD$950,000) nine
hundred and fifty thousand United States Dollars has just been transferred to
one of our corresponding banks in your country for immediate payment to you.
The paying bank is now waiting for you to contact them with the back up legal
documents for the said fund transfer so that they will remit your fund into
your bank account.So you are advice to forward your full name, contact address
and telephone to our Protocol officer in Republic of Benin,to enable her send
to you the back up legal documents for the already transferred fund which you
will be submitting to the paying bank to enable them release your fund to you.
Below is our protocal officer's contact info:-
Contact Person:---------------Mrs.Martha Oceni
Telephone Number:-------------+229 99 385 507.
E-mail Address:--------------moceni@e-mail.ua
Base on the above information's,you are advise then to co-operate with
Mrs.Martha Oceni so that your documents can be sent to you.
That is it for now and congratulations.
Mr.Geal Karimama.
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