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: "Mr. Fadil Ahmad" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mr.fadilahmad@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 04:37:31 -0700
Subject: RE: Urgent,Confidential And Strictly For You

Attention: Beneficiary

With reference to the new Federal Government policy towards the reconciliation and immediate payment of all overdue debts owed by the Nigerian government to foreign beneficiaries be officially informed that we have verified your contract file and have consequently find out that why you have not received your overdue inheritance payment is because you are dealing with impostors in various commercial banks in Nigeria, thereby being frustrated by several extortion of illegitimate fees and charges.

Secondly, we have been duly informed by the federal ministry of finance that your local representatives are conniving with these fake bank officials to change your account and transfer your inheritance funds to a strange account in Canada.

Hence the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in conjunction with the delegated officials of the united nations has mandated the Nigeria apex bank "central bank of Nigeria" to pay your outstanding payment of us$10.5million in favor of file#: IMF-UN/MTASCXX0X5X7X5X08 from your overdue funds.

However, we apologize for the delay in re-organizing these systems, and equally the inconveniences this delay might have caused you and your company in the very recent times. More importantly, do complete and send the following information to confirm and update your records to facilitate your payment.

1) Confirm your full name.
2) Confirm your current address.
3) Confirm your phone, fax and mobile phone numbers.
4) Confirm your profession, age & marital status.
5) Confirm nationality.

(The above information are for administrative convince) you are warned, in your own interest; stop further communication with any institution, offices or persons claiming to have relevance to the payment of your overdue funds out-side.

Best regards,

Mr. Fadil Ahmad
Financial Sector Surveillance
International Monetary Fund

Anti-fraud resources: