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. PATRICK IRWIN" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <patrick.irwinn@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 8 May 2014 14:16:18 +0100
Subject: IMF Scam Victims Compensation of $500,000.00 USD

Attention: E-mail Address Owner
 
RE: 2014 SCAM VICTIM’S COMPENSATION FROM THE IMF ACCRA - GHANA.
 
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is compensating all the scam victims and your email address was found in the scam victim’s list. This Western Union® office has been mandated by the IMF to transfer your compensation to you via Western Union® Money Transfer.  However, we have concluded to affect your own payment through Western Union® Money Transfer, $5,000 twice daily until the total sum of $500,000.00USD is completely transferred to you. We can not be able to send the payment with your email address alone, thereby we need your information as to where we will be sending the funds, such as; Receiver’s name:…. Address:….Country:…..Phone number:…..Attached copy of your Identification.
 
Note: That your payment files will be returned to the IMF within 72 hours if we did not hear from you, this was the instruction given to us by the IMF.  We will start the transfer as soon as we receive your information. For urgent inquiry, call +233 231 385 763.
.
Thanks.
 
Director Western Union® Money Transfer,
Head Office Accra - Ghana.
Tel; +233 231 385 763.
 
CONFIDENTIAL NOTICE
This email is intended for the owner of this E-mail Address only and contains privileged and confidential information. If you received this email by error, please delete it from your mail
box and notify us immediately for correction. The disclosure of this email to a third party is highly prohibited. Thanks for your understanding.

Anti-fraud resources: