|
|
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.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "inheritance funds" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "to your nominated bank account" (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)
- "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)
- This email message is a next of kin scam.
Fraud email example:
From: Raymond Gogo <cityman463@gmail.com>
Reply-To: ceo-gcb-opun@bk.ru
Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2021 07:46:24 +0000
Subject: Please Revert
Good Day,
My name is Mr.Raymond Gogo,the Chief Executive Officer IGS Financial
Services and I am contacting you to seek your cooperation/agreement to
present you as the beneficiary to an inheritance funds to the tune of $12.5
Million United States Dollars belonging to my late client who passed away
in the year 2009.
My late client was killed in Iraq and I am fully convinced that no one
would turn up to execute the letter of Administration to claim his funds as
since his death in 2009, I have monitored this funds expecting any of his
relatives to come forward to claim his money but since he did not have a
written WILL or declared any of his relative's information in his records
with my company professional ethics obligates me to act with extreme
confidentiality when dealing with clients of this type.
I decided to contact you to come in as the next of kin/beneficiary to my
late client and it does not matter if you are not directly related to my
late client but as his financial adviser for many years known to the bank
where the funds is deposited, I am in a position to present you as the only
surviving Beneficiary/Next of Kin to my late customer so that the funds can
then be transferred to your nominated bank account within 10 working days
after we have filed in a claims transfer application and it will then be
shared equally between us.
All relevant papers will be legally processed so that everything we will be
doing would be by the book and above board to meet all legal requirements
in both your country and mine so as to avoid any problems in future when
the funds would be sitting in our accounts.
Do get back to me if you are interested in this partnership so that i can
give you a comprehensive breakdown on how we will go about getting this
transaction done 100% legally.
Kind Regards,
Raymond Gogo,
Chief Executive Officer.
IGS Financial Services
|
Anti-fraud resources:
