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: Linda Ogor <lindaogor4@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <lindaogor@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 4 Mar 2016 12:56:46 +0000
Subject: A Personal Letter


Hello Dear,

I am Ms. Linda Ogor, a computer scientist with
central bank of Nigeria. I am 26 years old, just started work with CBN. I
came across your file which was marked X and your release disk painted
Red. I took time to study it and found out that you have paid virtually
all fees but the funds have not been released to you. The most annoying
thing is that they cannot tell you the truth that, on no account will
they ever release the fund to you, instead they let you spend money
unnecessarily.

I do not intend to work here all the days of my
life. I can release this fund to you if you can guarantee me of my
security and equally help me travel out of this country. If I don't run
away from this country after I made the transfer, I will be seriously in
trouble and my life will be in danger. It is like a Mafia setting in
Nigeria, you may not understand it because you are not a Nigerian.

The
only thing I will need to release this fund is a special HARD DISK
called HD120 GIG. I will buy two of it, recopy your information, destroy
the previous one, punch the computer to reflect in your bank within 24
banking hours. I will clean up the tracer and destroy your file, after
which I will run away from Nigeria to meet with you If you are
interested.

PLEASE, NOTE:

YOU
WILL SEND THE FEE FOR THE HARD DISKS OR YOU BUY THE HARD DISKS IN YOUR
COUNTRY AND SEND THEM TO ME BEFORE I COULD EFFECT THE TRANSFER. PLEASE,
DO NOT CONTACT ME IF YOU CAN NOT SEND THE HARD DISKS FEE OR THE HARD
DISKS. AS SOON AS I RECEIVE YOUR EMAIL I WILL LET YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THE
DISKS WILL COST YOU IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO GET THEM IN YOUR COUNTRY.

Do
get in touch with me immediately. You should send to me your convenient
tell/fax numbers for easy communications and also reconfirm your
banking details so that there won't be any mistake during the transfer
process.

Regards,

Ms. Linda Ogor


Anti-fraud resources: