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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:
- "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.
Fraud email example:
From: ahmed Tayyib <kingmerkchemicalsespana@gmail.com>
Reply-To: tayyib.taslimm4@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2018 09:06:52 +0000
Subject: Funds Claim
Hi,
Greetings, I 'm contacting you once again. Could it be possible that you
did not received my snail mail to your corporate address 7 days ago?
concerning my late client Gold and 9.5 million US Dollars, with bank in
Lome-Togo. Kindly reach me for very urgent and important briefing.
I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that
will protect you from any Breach of law,Looking forward to hearing from you
for detail explanation
Regards
Ahmed Tayyib
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Anti-fraud resources: