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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: Francis <francis1@management.id.vg>
Reply-To: <francis202@yeah.net>
Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2016 10:24:06 +0100
Subject: Your Cashier Check

Hi,
We would like to bring your attention to the following updates. The Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation conducted an audit on the West African government account recently. And During our recent audit, the total sum of (US$7,800,000.00) were discovered which has been approved in your favor but still unclaimed; We were meant to understand from our findings that you have been going through hard ways by paying a lot of charges to see the release of your funds which has been the handwork of some miscreant elements from this country. We certainly do apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused. In my concerted efforts to actualize your fund payment with the convenient time schedule I have issued a cashier check of ($7.8M) in your name. All you need to receive your entire payment of $7.8M in a cashier check (along with the monetary documents that ensure its withdrawal) is (claimant affidavit) which is a laid down procedure in the financial institution for a situation like this and it is a basic requirement for you to successfully claim the funds. This will cost you $125 at our High Court Probate Division for the release of this sum of money to you as the sole beneficiary. In order to help us serve you better and expeditiously, be kind enough to make the payment of $125 through MoneyGram to our legal department to help you obtain the document.
Receiver's name: CHRIS OKO
City: Porto Novo
Country: Benin Republic
Please be assured that once we confirmed your payment, your cashier check will be registered with DHL, for onward delivery, at the same time, we will email a new invoice to you with the tracking number, you can tracking your shipment online in 24 hours since you received it.

Sincerely,
Francis EGOYIBO
Office of the Accountant General of the Federation
Tel +234 9081 09 8889

Anti-fraud resources: