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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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: Michael Lewis <michlewis_securities@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 12:44:47 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: Urgent.


Anti-terrorist and Monitory Crimes DivisionFBI Washington Field Office601 4th Street NWWashington, DC 20535E-mail: washington_field.ic.fbi.gov@usa.com

Sir,
This is to officially inform you that it has come to my notice and we have thoroughly investigated by the help of our Intelligence Monitoring network system that, you are one of the victims of the African Scams.
We have been having meetings for the past 6 days, which ended 2 days ago, with the secretary general of United Nations and officials of FBI, to avoid scams and fraudulent activities. This mail is to all the people that have been Affected in any part of the USA, this includes all the contractors/ beneficiary that may have not received their over-due contract payments/inheritance payments, and people that have unfinished transaction due to one problem or the other etc. 
The Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] in-conjunction with United Nations has brought a solution to end this problem.Since the Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] is involved in this matter, is rest assured of 100% risk free because it is our right to protect American citizens and all the rest of the world.You have been allocated the sum of $2,500,000.00 as a compensation to replace whatsoever you have lost in the past,this transfer will be properly handled by the SOCIETE GENERALE GHANA through the directorship of Gilbert Hie (Managing Director) E-mail: gilberthie.societegenerale@consultant.com,and will be fully monitored by this agency. 
We have nominated only one bank to handle all the payment approvals in this regard, I advice you to co-operate with us.
Sincerely,
Authorized by:
Kevin I. Perkins.Deputy Director General,FBI foreign payment operation dept.


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