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.

 

 

Fraud email example:

From: "Steve White" <webmaster@uk-courierservices.org>
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 21:48:55 +0000
Subject: COURIER OPTION

                          The National Lottery
                          P O Box 1010
                          Liverpool, L70 1NL
                          UNITED KINGDOM
                          (Customer Services) 

Ref:UK/9420X2/68 
Batch:074/05/ZY369

Date:13/12/2005                                                                                             

                       The National Lottery Logo

 

Reg Order No:D5627256

ATTENTION:Kenneth Pruitt,

Thanks for contacting us.

This is to inform you that you have been officially cleared for payment by the Verifications Dept. at the headquarters of the UK National Lottery.

The original copy of your certificate and your cheque from the British government stating that the money was obtained legally through their National Lotto will be sent to you and the bank  as soon as you meet with any of the option selected and your winnings will be couriered or transferred to you immediately.

You can now begin the final step of the claims process, which is the transferring of your cash prize to you. With regards to this, there are two options open to you, you are required to select the most convenient of the two.

The options, together with their associated conditions are presented below:

OPTION 1:
Courier of your winning draft to you via any of this channel listed below:

FedEx(2working days)
Mailing & bsp;....................... £205.00
Insurance.............................£350.00
Vat (5%)..............................£044.75
TOTAL.................................£599.75

UPS(3working days)
Mailing &n bsp;.......................£189.00
Insurance.............................£350.00
Vat (5%)..............................£038.95
TOTAL.................................£577.95

POST OFFICE MAIL(7working days)
Mailing ;.............................£130.00
Insurance.............................£350.00
Vat (5%)..............................£019.00
TOTAL.................................£499.00

The insurance company declined payment for the courier, stating that it is against their professional policy towards ensuring the safe delivery of the draft to you. That if a reverse payment is made, and something goes wrong, that we/you cannot sue the courier company or insurance company to recover the full value of the fund as stipulated in the draft since payment for insurance cover was not made at point of mailing.

With the above reason, reverse payment is ruled out.Forward the cost of mailing your draft with any of the courier channel cost you choose above to us.

OPTION 2:

Condition: The cost of COT (commission of transfer) being charged by our transfering bank, which  is (£1,500GBP) of the cash being transferred will be paid by you(winner).

Note that your prize is protected by a hardcover insurance policy by GEOTRUST INSURANCE COMPANY, which makes it impossible to deduct any amount from the money before it has been remitted to you. This means that the above charges cannot be deducted from the prize and hence must be provided by you before your prize is transferred to you.

Your payment should be in favor of our Accounts Officer with the information provided below. Evidence of payment should be sent back to this office. You are to make your payment via any western union money transfer office.

Joseph Tommy
#147,MARLVERN TERRANCE
LATYMER ROAD,EDMONTON
Manchester,N9 P99

Also attach a scanned copy of either your driver's licence, international passport (photo page) or any other legally identifying document.

Also be reminded that the deadline for the claiming of winnings is exactly two weeks after the receipt of this email. After this period, your cash prize will be deemed to have been forfeited by you.

Good luck and Congratulations once again. Please send your response within the next 48hrs to this same email address.

Respectfully,

Steve White

Tel: +447023057659
Tel: +447023055816
Fax: +448700689662

--

Anti-fraud resources: