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: union bank <ubn_ubnplc@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <unionbank202plc@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 18:43:05 +0100
Subject: FROM UNION BANK OF NIGERIA PLC, YOUR ACCRUED INTEREST PAYMENT OF
$3.1 M DOLLARS IS READY



UNION BANK OF NIGERIA PLC.36 BROAD STREET, MARINA LAGOS,NIGERIA,TELEGRAM: UNION BROAD BRANCHBIG, STRONG, RELIABLE

UNION BANK OF NIG. PLCBIG, STRONG AND RELIABLE.TELEPHONE: +234805800-5056
ATTN:BENEFICIARY... RE: PAYMENT ON ACCRUED INTEREST OF US$3.1M I am REV. MARK DURU, the EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR and Head of Swift Transfer Unit of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc. Lagos-Nigeria Sometime ago, in our bank your contract money was brought to our bank from Nigerian Apex Bank, CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA (C.B.N) and after some period, this money was taken back to the Federal Government treasury. For the period of time this money was in our bank, it generated an interest of US$ 3.1 Million, which we are about to be pay to you via KTT wire transfer to your account. For your information and advice, you need to hasten up to pick this Fund because from time to time the C.B.N auditors do come to our bank to cross-check our files and our financial update, the earlier you comply with the demands of the delivery of the fund, the faster the action, because the CBN officials wants the accrued interest to be paid to them but we refused, so when they find out that this interest fund is still in our bank they will want to call back the money to the Federal Government treasury. What we need from you now is any form of your identification for example; your international passport or you’re driver’s license, then your account details. As a matter of fact we don’t have enough time to waste since we have wasted time in contacting our respective customers, so try and comply with the entire necessary requirement for remittance. call me on our official telephone expecting your immediately response.

Yours Sincerely, REV MARK DURUDIRECTOR UNION BANK OFNIGERIA PLC
_________________________________________________________________
Connect to the next generation of MSN Messenger 
http://imagine-msn.com/messenger/launch80/default.aspx?locale=en-us&source=wlmailtagline

Anti-fraud resources: