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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.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Badaru <baderuamor@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Badaru <badaruamor@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 04:26:52 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: Cry For Help.
I want you to patiently read this offer. I am Mrs AmorBadaru the wife to the deceased former Head of Delegation to the World Bank in West Africa. My husband was the linkman between theOrganization for Petroleum Exporting Countries - OPEC and the petroleum sectorin a West African country. He also attends OPEC meetings constantly in Geneva before his deathcaused by cardiac arrest in our home town. Through the sale of our allocated oil quota in OPEC, he wasable to make S$15.5million.I want you to assist me to claim this money as icannot claim it directly because he made the deposit as a fund belonging to hisbusiness associate in order not to raise eyebrow since he was a civil servantduring that time, and the code of conduct bureau forbids him or his wife toacquire such amount of money. It is on this basis that I am contacting you for assistance,if you will be interested, claim documents will been processed and sent to you.The documents with which the fund is deposited will be amended to reflect youas the beneficiary so that you will be eligible to collect the fund as hisbusiness associate. You shall be entitled to 40% of the total funds while therest will be given to me on arrival in your country for the up keeping of myonly son and for further investment under your kind control there in yourcountry as I can not be able to do any investment here in West Africa due tothe origin of the said fund. I will not fail to bring to your notice that this businessis risk free and doesn't have any negative implication. You should notentertain any fear as all modalities for the smooth and easy transfer of thisfund have been finalized. If you can conveniently assure me of your ability tokeep this business very secret and confidential, you can write back to me forfurther details. Best regards,Mrs Amor Badaru.
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