joewein.net   joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days
  jwSpamSpy

Home
About Us
Spam
419/Nigeria
Fraud
Contact

"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: "Miss Benita Uzoma" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <benitauzoma@e-mail.ua>
Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2012 09:29:01 -0800
Subject: REGARDING YOUR UNPAID FUND

Hello Dear ,
 
 
 
 
I am Benita Uzoma. A computer scientist with central bank of Nigeria.
I am 26 years
 
old, just started work with C.B.N. I came across your file which was
marked X and your
 
released disk painted RED, I took time to study it and found out that
you have paid
 
VIRTUALLY all fees and certificate but the fund has not been release
to you.The most
 
annoying thing is that they cannot tell you the truth that on no
account wills they ever
 
release the fund to you; instead they let you spend money
unnecessarily.
 
 
I do not intend to work here all the days of my life, I can release
this fund to you if you
 
can certify me of my security, and how I can run away from this
Nigeria if I do this,
 
because if I don't run away from this country after I made the transfer,
I will be Seriously
 
in trouble and my life will be in danger.this is like a Mafia setting
in Nigeria; you may
 
 
 
 
not understand it because you are not a Nigerian. The only thing
I will need from you to
 
release this fund is a special HARD DISK we call it HD120 GIG.
I will need two of this hard
 
disk to recopy your information from the corrupted one,destroy
the previous one, and punch
 
the computer to reflect in your bank within 24 banking hours.
 
 
 
I will clean up the tracer and destroy your file, after which
I will run away from Nigeria
 
to meet with you. If you are interested.Do get in touch with me
immediately, You should send
 
to me your convenient tell/fax numbers for easy communications
and also re confirm your
 
banking details, so that there won't be any mistake.
 
Regards,
 
Miss Benita Uzoma

Anti-fraud resources: