419 scam: "Senior Resident Representative"<INFO@IMF.COM> Re: Did You Authorized Your Payment To Mrs. Virgie Brown

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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:
- "million us dollars" (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 next of kin scam.
This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- +27835198912 (South Africa, prepaid mobile phone)

Fraud email example:

From: "Senior Resident Representative" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <axelschimmelpffennigg@outlook.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2015 14:31:36 +0200
Subject: Re: Did You Authorized Your Payment To Mrs. Virgie Brown

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Address: PO Box 12082; Hatfield 0028; Pretoria

Attention: Beneficiary,

Your email appeared among the beneficiaries, who will receive a part-payment of your contractual sum of 8.5 Million US Dollars and has been approved already for months. You are requested to get back to me for more direction and instruction on how to receive your fund. However, we received an email from one Mrs. Virgie Brown who told us that she is your next of kin and that you died in a car accident last week. She has also submitted her account for us to transfer the fund to her. We want to hear from you before we can make the transfer to confirm if you are dead or not.

Please in confirmation that you are still alive, you are advised to reconfirm the below listed information to enable us facilitate an immediate payment for you.

1 Your full names

2 Your present contact address.

3 Your t elephone & Fax numbers.

4 Your O ccupations/age/sex.

5 Your Private E mail Address.

Once again, I apologize to you on behalf of I M F (International Monetary Fund) for failure to pay your funds in time, which according to records in the system had been long overdue.

Thanks,

Senior Resident Representative

Axel Schimmelpfennig

Address: PO Box 12082; Hatfield 0028; Pretoria

Johannesburg South Africa

Tel: +27835198912

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam