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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:

Fraud email example:

From: "The World Bank" <info@worldbank.org>
Reply-To: 1205977@gmail.com
Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2011 20:54:45 +0530 (IST)
Subject: Dear Beneficiary

The World Bank (London Office)
Milbank Tower, 12th Floor, 21-24, Milbank
London SW1P 4QP ENGLAND
Our Ref: WB/UN/066147/2011
http://www.worldbank.org/


Attention Beneficiary,

Following series of respective complains to the United Nations, by the FBI
and other Security agencies from Asia, Europe, Oceania and United States
of America on the speedy growth of Fraudulent and Scam activities around
the Globe, we at the World Bank (UK Representative Office) have been
having regular meetings for the past 3 months which ended today with the
United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (Internal Audit
Monitoring Consulting and Investigations Division).

The United Nations deems it necessary to look into this trend and has
agreed to compensate noted victims, and this includes foreign contractors,
Inheritance beneficiary, ATM and Lottery winners that have not received
their payment, and people that have had an unfinished transaction or
international Lottery payment that failed due to Government problems etc.

Your email address was found in a list belonging to some Scammers/dubious
government officials that were apprehended by the metropolitan Police and
we believed that you are one of the victims that have been suffering an
unending fund transfer process in their hands by paying lot of money to
see to the release of your funds which they unnecessarily delayed by
making the process a lot difficult for you so that they can divert your
money into their private account when you are fed-up.

On this note, we wish to congratulate and inform you that we have received
the instruction from the United Nations to credit your designated bank
account directly with a part-payment of 2.5 Million from their offshore
account with us as compensation for your inconveniences.

Therefore, you are strictly advice to stop further communication with the
counterparts of these scammers/dubious officials or any correspondence
outside this office since you do not have to pay them to receive your
funds as you have met up with the whole funds transfer requirements. The
only requirement from you is to obtain a Non-Residential Clearance Form to
enable us credit your account directly by telegraphic transfer through any
bank within this region.

Should you follow our directives, your funds will be credited and reflect
in your bank account within three (3) bank working days from the day you
obtain the Non-Residential Clearance Form. Otherwise, the Instruction to
credit you account would be nullified without prior notice.

For further details and assistance on this Remittance Notification, kindly
forward your FULL CONTACT ADDRESS, TELEPHONE and FAX NUMBERS directly to
my private E-mail: Derek_Warren@representative.com

Hoping you adhere and don’t neglect this message, I advice you.

The World Bank, working for a world free of poverty!

Regards,
Derek Warren
Senior Communications Officer
The World Bank

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