419 scam: "Maria obasi"<mobas73@yahoo.com.ph> Business Opportunity...waiting for you..

joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet

Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days

Home

About Us

Spam

419/Nigeria

Fraud

Contact

"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)
- "the consignment" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "consignment " (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- ",000,000" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.

Fraud email example:

From: "Maria obasi" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mobasi73@yahoo.com.ph>
Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2012 05:05:03 -0700
Subject: Business Opportunity...waiting for you..

Dear Sir,

I want to bring to your knowledge of a very lucrative business opportunity that I have.
Well I work in a bank as an agent that accompanies contractors/inheritance funds to be paid to them
and one of my fellow official by name Mr. Patrick have this deal together and we wont mind you in it if you promise
to keep optimum confidentiality the boxes contain about $24,000,000 this money was lodged in a security vault in New York.

Call Mr. Michael in united sates and tell him that you are calling on behalf of Mrs. Maria Obasi
that handed the consignment to him WHOSE TRACK NO IS 5119733286,
Also ask him how much it will cost to clear out this consignment and get it delivered to your home address,
bear in mind that they are not aware of the content of the box, it was registered as family valuable goods for safety and security reasons,
i want you to know that this consignment has been there for the past 4 months where I am looking for a trust worthy person to get it out.
This money was meant for the contractors that executed their contracts; bear in mind that we are ready
to release 20% of the total money to you for your help each of the boxes has $12,000,000.
You can please reach me on this email.

Regards,
Mrs. Maria Obasi

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam