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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:
- An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
- 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.
- This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- mrdavidmorris90@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)
Fraud email example:
From: MR DAVID MORRIS <dr.markdaves@gmail.com>
Reply-To: mrdavidmorris90@gmail.com
Date: Sat, 2 Oct 2021 23:55:36 -0700
Subject: SHIPMENT
--
From the office of
MR DAVID MORRIS
Administration Officer
United Nations Inspection Services
Atlanta, Georgia USA
Hello;
Our agency has in possession a parcel shipped from a government agency of
the United Kingdom. During transport the package was damaged and the label
became almost illegible. What we have deciphered appears to be your name.
In events such as this we have no choice but to turn these packages over to
the closest match on the shipping address. This is required by law. And
this is why we are contacting you.
These packages have been scanned and x-rayed in hopes to find any
information to surrender them to the rightful owner.
We discovered, while x-raying these packages, that they contain a large
amount of United States currency. We assume this was a transaction or
transfer to you and that you are probably still expecting the delivery.
(The total estimated sum is close to $8M)
Again, we are required by law to turn this package over to the rightful
owner and since your name appears on the shipping label, that owner is
probably you.
We would like you to forward this parcel to you but we need to verify your
full name, proper shipping address and a telephone number so we may begin
processing this claim.
There is a limited time required by law to claim lost/damaged/illegible
packages. Once this time expires we must turn the package over to the
United States Government who disperses the contents to charities. Any
unclaimed money is sent to the US Treasury Office where it is destroyed.
If you feel that you should claim this money please reply with the
information above and we can release it to you.
CONTACT.... mrdavidmorris90@gmail.com
Thank you for your help in this matter;
MR DAVID MORRIS
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