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: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: <www.imf.org.info@usa.com>
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2013 10:25:30 +0100
Subject: IMF RECENT VERDICT ON RELEASE OF FUNDS TO BENEFICIARY

Attention: Approved Fund Beneficiary,

The recent verdict issued on release of selected contract payments, inheritance and Lottery winning to beneficiaries stated that the total amount owed to selected beneficiaries until date must be released unconditionally and your name and e-mail address was selected,

That the Government of the Country of your Fund origin should signed a Pre advise letter for the total amount owed to you, authorizing the bank appointed to draw from the reserve account in favour of crediting your bank account,

That you must not be requested to pay any Tax or Levy before Transferring of the fund to your bank account, but all taxes and levis including banking fees and charges must be deducted from the amount drawn from the reserve account before final transfer to you,

This organization is legally responsible to ensure your fund is released to you on these conditions without bottleneck, therefore you are requested to contact this office with your personal information and amount owed to you to enable me provide you with the right contact of the bank and department appointed and authorized to draw from the reserve account in favour of paying to you,

Finally, may I use this opportunity to announce that International Monetary Fund,(IMF) does not ask for fees or charges before given services and will not permit approved funds to be confiscated, therefore be warned of such notice as it may turn to be a scam.

Best Regard

Mr. Becker Johnson,
Director, Monitoring Unit,
International Monetary Fund, (IMF)
Head Quater,

Anti-fraud resources: