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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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Federal Bureau of Investigation" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <fbiworldunit6@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2010 23:20:17 -0500
Subject: From Federal Bureau of Investigation

Date: September 24, 2010 It has come to our notice that $10,500,000.00 has been released into Bank of America in your name as the beneficiary. The banks know that it does not have sufficient facilities to effect this payment from the United Kingdom to a temporary account in your name; the bank has used what we know as a secret diplomatic transit payment S.D.T.P to transfer these funds. It is still, waiting for you to confirm the transfer of funds, so that it can credit to your account. Secret diplomatic payments are not made unless the funds are related to terrorist activities why must your payment be made via secret transfer, if your transaction is legitimate. If you are not a terrorist, then why have you not received the money directly into your account; this is a pure veiled means of payment. We advise you to contact us immediately, as the funds will be held in our custody, until you provide us with an Immunity Seal of Transfer (IST) from the local bank that authorize the transfer from where the funds was originally transferred, to declare that the funds that you are about to receive are terrorist/drug free. We shall release the funds immediately we receive this legal document. You are required to obtain the Immunity seal of transfer (IST) to clear your name and fund from illegal act concerning 9/11, to confirm that the money you are about to receive is clean. If you fail to provide the Immunity seal of transfer (IST) within three working days, we will take proper action against you for not proving to us the legitimacy of the fund you are about to receive. This condition is valid until September 27, 2010 after we shall take actions on canceling the payment and charging you for moving funds illegally. Signed Robert Mueller FBI director Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Anti-fraud resources: