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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: "Mr. Fred Wesson" <wallaceyoug2uk@gmail.com>
Reply-To: zenith1ng@superposta.com
Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2013 03:14:08 -0700
Subject: ATTENTION PLEASE!

--
Hello Dear,

I am Mr. Fred Wesson. I am the Chief Security and Inspection Officer
at Diplomatic Cargo Facility of Seattle Tacoma International Airport
here in the State of Washington, United States of America. I supervise
the operations of Department of Homeland Security, United States
Customs, Quarantine and Border Protection Agencies here in the
Airport.

During my general inspection few months ago, I discovered an abandoned
cargo shipment in our facility here. Having being abandoned for long,
I decided to scan the cargo with our newly acquired Ultra Modern High
Resolution X-Ray Scanner to ascertain the content of the shipment. The
scan revealed some undisclosed sum of new Hundred Dollar denominated
bills neatly wrapped in water proof nylon and concealed in a metal box
weighing approximately 120kg. On my estimation, the cargo contains
about Three or Four Million United States Dollars neatly sealed in
water proof nylon and packed inside the Box as scan revealed.

I initiated a private investigation to know the source, destination,
purpose and reason of abandonment. I was shocked to discover that the
money that was concealed in the box was actually part of your delayed
payment which your partners were trying to divert using your name. I
also discovered that the cargo was abandoned because the Airport
Authority asked the shipping Agent to contact the consignor to provide
the keys of the box for inspection as the documentation was not
properly done. I believe the cargo was also abandoned because the
content was not properly declared by the consignor as currency rather
it was declared as Personal effects to avoid suspicion or diversion.
Moreover, the documentation was vaguely done making it difficult to
trace to anyone.

Neither I nor any other staff of this Airport can unilaterally move
this shipment out of this Cargo Facility without having any one who
will stand as the recipient and apply for it as his or her missing
cargo which he has been looking for since a year ago and have managed
to trace it to our Airport. As the Chief Security and Inspection
officer, I will approve and sign-out that the shipment has been
inspected by me and that it contained personal effects before it will
be released for delivery to you.

I am contacting you to seek your permission to route this shipment to
you. I will guide you through every step and process till the cargo is
delivered to you. Since I have established the reason for abandonment,
I can guarantee that this deal is as good as closed. I will equally
assure that there will not be any problem so long as you adhere to my
advise. If you accept to work with me, I will arrange for the delivery
of this cargo to your address as the rightful owner after you must
have applied for the release to you. Upon delivery to your house, we
shall use a welding machine to cut open the metal box and share the
money equally between us. Please provide me with your SKYPE ID or
YAHOO MESSENGER to enable us have a video chat. I hope to hear from
you soonest.
Mr. Fred Wesson
Chief Security & Inspection Officer
Diplomatic Cargo Facility
Seattle Tacoma (SEA-TAC) International Airport,
17801 International Blvd, Seattle, WA 98158
Phone: (206) 497-3739

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