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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 fake company names, fake addresses, non-existent institutions/documents or other details have appeared in scams before:
- "industrial and commercial bank of china" (not involved with lotteries)
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "million united states 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)
- ",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)
- "lagos" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- 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.
Fraud email example:
From: "MR SAMUEL EGOBIA" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <busssytech@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 7 Dec 2015 19:18:41 -0600
Subject: STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL NOTICE
Contact Person: Mr Samuel Egobia
24/7 Banking 28 Houndsditch, Road
Lagos Nigeria
Telephone: +234 8180155880.
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL NOTICE
Notice is hereby given for verification of information given to us by Nigeria National Petroleum operation for transfer of contract inheritance fund valued at USD 10,000,000..00 {Ten MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS ONLY}which we receive a letter
from Mr .xia hu that you are dead and confirm that the fund should be remmitted to his account with detail below
BANK NAME : INDUSTRIAL AND COMMERCIAL BANK OF CHINA (ICBC)
BANK ADDRESS : BEIJING MUNICIPAL BRANCH, BEIJING
NAME OF BENEFICIARY: PALO CENTO
ACCOUNT NUMBER: 6212260200004000754
SWIFT CODE: ICBKCNBJBJM
It is mandatory for us to confirm if you are dead or alive before we proceed for the payment
We need you to reconfirm your current details to us,
Please acknowledge the receipt of this Electronic mail. i hope that you will find this information useful and helpful.You can Call or email back to us for immediate transfer of your fund Tel:+234 8180155880.
Yours faithfully,
FOR:PPRA
Mr.Egobia Samuel
Foreign operation manager
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