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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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "jonesbrown101@ymail.com" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Brown" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <brownjones12@barid.com>
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2016 05:45:33 -0700
Subject: Fidelity International
Fidelity International
Oakhill House
130 Tonbridge Road
Hildenborough Tonbridge
Kent TN11 9DZ
Dear Friend,
I am Mr. Brown Jones, I work as the Fund Executive Manager
with Fidelity Investment UK, the world leading Investment
& Fund Management Institution based in UK/Channel
Island.I have an investor under my portfolio with a closing
balance of USD$15.745,000.00 as his first initial deposit.
This investor died Four years ago leaving no WILL or
AUTHORIZATION for Re- transfer of his investment and its
proceeds to the INHERITOR. I have personally carried out an
investigation on the subject matter that took me 12 months
to finalize and was made to understand that the family or
relatives of the investor knows nothing about his investment
with fidelity and none have any records of all his deposits
and investment with us, there by creating an avenue for
claiming of the said funds with its accrued interest on
presentation of a trustworthy person that can stand as the
INHERITOR to the deceased.
If you are interested i can present you as the
INHERITOR with proper documentation that will qualify you to
have the funds claimed and on doing this,our establishment
will not question the release of the funds to you as i will
make sure that we comply with the banking laws and ethics of
claiming the investment in our establishment.
ratio will be 60%/35% Please contact me for more
details if interested.
PLEASE REPLY ON MY ALTERNATIVE EMAIL;jonesbrown101@ymail.com
Looking forward to hearing from you shortly.
Sincerely.
Mr. Brown Jones.
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