|
|
joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
|
|
"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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "first national bank" (not involved with lotteries)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Nicholas Brumsey <nicholasbrumsey01@gmail.com>
Reply-To: <nicholasbrumsey@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2015 18:37:21 +0000
Subject: Very Important Notice
Attention!!!
Dear Sir/Ma
You are contacted based on information gathered by our team of financial auditors in the on-going financial auditing to the entire financial institutions licensed by the British financial governing body to carry out foreign financial transactions. The British financial supervision commission wishes to bring to your notice that the non- resident domiciliary account in your favor with the management of First National Bank has been dormant for more than six (6) months and which is against the financial laid down rules & regulations handed over to financial institutions by the British financial governing body.
You are directed to claim the fund in the domiciliary account on or before February 13, 2015 or forfeit the fund to British government.
Regards,
Mr. Nicholas Brumsey
Information Officer
For:( BFSC)
|
Anti-fraud resources:
