“419” scam emails

Overview
Recently there have been several reports of the following scam email being received.
The email informs the recipient that a large sum of money is being held by a bank and a
percentage of it can be released to the recipient.
To many, this email would be recognised as a version of the well known “419” or
“Nigerian Prince” scam.

What is a “419” scam?

This scam was originally delivered in the form of a posted letter, however, the age of
the Internet enabled scammers to improve their methods. Email became the tool of
choice to target thousands of potential victims at a time and at little cost.
Typically, these emails will offer a sum of money in return for a smaller fee, often
referred to as a “release fee”; this is called advanced fee fraud. However, the emails
may just intend to harvest your personal information for use in other criminal activities.
The scammers will often use the name of a legitimate organisation and may even use
the name of a real person in the finance industry to make the offer seem more
believable. It is also possible that a compromised email account or realistic looking email
address is used to appear to have originated from a legitimate organisation.

The email (sample on next page) may be easy to spot as many have familiarised
themselves with this kind of scam but this doesn’t mean that will always be the case.
More sophisticated and targeted scams of this type do exist so it’s always a good idea to
remain vigilant.

Recommended Action
 If you receive one of these emails, mark it as junk and delete it.
 Don’t click on links or open attachments - Malicious websites and files can install
viruses and other malicious code resulting in personal data being stolen or
computer systems being negatively impacted.
 Never respond, even if you know it is a scam because this will only tell the
scammer that your email address is active and could result in you becoming the
recipient of abuse and other scam email campaigns.

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 “419” scam emails

Scam email sample

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