|
|
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.
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: Miss Michele Barnes <mb77889909@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Miss Michele Barnes <michele_barnes01@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2019 00:56:36 +0900 (JST)
Subject: My humble greetings !, My name is Michelle Barnes,I am 22 years old girl humbly seeking your worthy assistance and guidance to relocate and invest my legitimate inherited fund amount of $4.7 Million US in your country. I do not have any knowledge about business on how to invest or manage this fund. Will you promise to be sincere with me to represent as my foreign trustee ? I am wishing to make you my trustee as soon as i receive your reply, I will not delay to give you more details about the fund, my plans
Sincerely,
Ms. Michelle Barnes
|
Anti-fraud resources:
