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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: rt.rev.ericmark0@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 06 Nov 2013 13:56:37 -0800
Subject: RE: UNITED NATIONS PAYMENT OFFICE ATHENS, GREECE.

UNITED NATIONS ORGANIZATION/
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND/
WORLD BANK FACT-FINDING & SPECIAL
DUTIES OFFICE ATHENS, GREECE.

Greetings to you,

I am Rt. Rev. Father Eric Mark, a senior staff with the
World Bank fact finding & special duties office. Immediately
after the publication from this office last week that all
unclaimed contracted funds (UCF), unpaid lotto fund (ULF),
scammed victims funds (SVF) ETC should be paid through this
office. This office received many applications including
from your representative with British passport NO.
3028882234. He also forwarded this account to us, ACC. NAME:
MR JAMES JACKSON. BANK NAME: CITI BANK. ADDRESS: ARIZONA,
USA. ACCOUNT NUMBER: 6503809008. On your receipt of this
message urgently reconfirm to this office whether this
person is truly from you or not, as this office will not be
liable if the total sum US$5MILLION paid to your
representative (Mr. James Jackson) account.

If not you are therefore requested to forward the following
information to this office for verifications and re-approved
on your name as beneficiary of the fund. YOUR NAME IN FULL.
YOUR COMPLETE ADDRESS. YOUR TELEPHONE OR CONTACT
INFORMATION. AGE AND GENDER. YOUR OCCUPATION. PERSONAL NOTE:
According to information I personally gathered from the
banks/security and computer section, you have been waiting
for a long time to receive your money without success. As I
found out that you have almost met all the statutory
requirements in respect of your fund settlement. Your
problem is that of interest groups. A lot of people are
interested in your payment and those people are merely doing
papers works with you and that is why you receive messages
from different people every day. Also we found out that some
of the officials and fraudsters have been extorting a lot of
money from you with the pretext of helping you to receive
your money. I can assure you that this may last for years
yet nothing happens, if you do not do away with those
officers you call your partners and for security reasons.
And I have decided to take it upon myself to make sure that
you received your funds immediately through diplomatic means
of payment.

The money is right now in two security proof boxes weighing
110kg each, which is 220kg for the two boxes. We went to
four courier companies to make arrangements on how to ship
them by courier to you, we went to DHL, FedEx, IAS, UPS, and
all said that they must open the boxes for inspection by the
customs before shipment. This is something we want to avoid
because the boxes were padded with machine in the United
States, to open them you have to cut the pad before you will
meet the buttons that you will press to open the dial
code-lock. Therefore there is no way you can open the boxes
and be able to close them again. We told the courier
services that the boxes contained film materials and when
open to air it will spoil the materials. We did not declare
money because couriers do not carry money or they may be
tempted to run way with the money. Today a friend of mine
who is diplomat disclosed to me that there is courier
service they use to send diplomatic material and information
from one country to another. It has diplomatic immunity and
cannot be checked by the customs in anywhere in the World.
The name of the courier service is Global Security Service
(GSS) I will meet them as soon as I have your go ahead
order. The Diplomat will help me to get immunity papers, so
we do not have any problem. We have concluded that you must
compensate us with five hundred thousand United States
Dollars (US$500.000.00) as soon as you receive your money to
this effect, you will send to us a promissory note for five
hundred thousand united States Dollars (US$500.000.00) along
with your address for sending the boxes by diplomatic
courier, Please maintain top most secrecy as it may cause a
lot of problem if found out that we are using this way to
help you. Do not ever tell anybody about this until you have
your money at your doorstep.

I want to help you because something in me is telling me
that you are an honest person, when we concluded this and
you send our part. We will help to ship the final part of
the money to you. Be blessed as we wait for your urgent
reply. For security reason please reply to (
rt.rev.ericmark0@gmail.com )

Yours faithfully,

Rt. Rev. Father Eric Mark
Chairman, Fact-Finding & Special Duties Office

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