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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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:
- "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 free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- bessan27@indiatimes.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: "Julie Nafaa" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <bessan27@indiatimes.com>
Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2012 09:53:20 -0700
Subject: Did you get our last email to you 1!
Attention:
We sent you this email previously but since we did not get any response from you ,
we are obliged to resend it. Do endeavour to response to this mail urgently.
Did you authorise anybody to claim your fund on your behalf? we need your urgent
response because your file had a problem due to a petition filed by one Mr.Edgar
Carlos from Peru claiming to be your Attorney and that you have handed him the
ownership of your fund .
He sent us the bank account particulars below claiming that it is where your money
will be paid into:
BANCO DE CREDITO DEL PERU.
N° de cuenta 245-13592091-1-42 ,
Código SWFT N° BCPLPEPL .
We became suspicious when he was asked to present a power of Attorney duly signed
by you and he could not present it, that is why we decided to contact you to know if you
are privy to this to avoid fraudulent fund diversion.
Do confirm to us immediately if you authorised this new arrangement so we will not be
held liable at the end.
Contact our verification officer immediately : Dr. Richard Bessan on :
Email: bessan@acfm.tk
info@acfm.tk
bessan27@indiatimes.com
Thanks for your Co-operation
Sincerely ,
Mrs Julie Nafaa
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Anti-fraud resources:
