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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:
- "your urgent reply" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
- This email message is a orphan scam.
Fraud email example:
From: eric abim <eric.abim2@yahoo.pt>
Reply-To: eric abim <ericabim2@yahoo.fr>
Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 00:08:02 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: Compliments of the season to you and your family.
 Respected One
Compliments of the season to you and your family.
I am Eric Abim the only child of my late parents mr& mrs Noel Abim,i am 22 years of age and i am from Ivory Coast,i need your assistance to transfer my inheritance sum of (3,500.000.00) Three million Five Hundred Thousand united states of America Dollars which my late fathe deposited with a bank in Lome the commercial city of Togo Republic with my name as the next of kin .
My parents died following the political war in our country 2011 .My father was a well known farmer until his sudden death following the crises.i found the documents covering the deposit when i was removing somethings in my late father room and i have not reveal this secret to anyone accept you and i will also like you to keep everything we will do secret only to yourself till we have the fund transfer to you by the bank.
Due to the situation of things now,i need your assistance to transfer this fund into your bank account so that you can help me to come over to your country to further my education while you will manage the fund for me until when I will take over the investment.
For all your assistance,i have agreed that you will take 20% of the fund while the remaining you will help me to invest under your cares.
I will need your urgent reply to enable me to give you relevant information that will enable you to proceed where the fund is for them to release the fund to you as my late father foriegn business partner.
Thanks and God bless you.
Eric Abim
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