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: ban ki-moon un <gfdghfdggh444444@msn.com>
Reply-To: <unitednation44@live.com>
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:45:51 +0000
Subject: FROM UNITED NATIONS ,PAYMENT RELEASED TODAY ..



(INTERNATIONAL FUNDS TRANSFER / AUDIT UNIT)
UNITED NATIONS
(WORLD BANK ASSISTED PROGRAMME)
DIRECTORATE OF INTERNATIONAL PAYMENT AND TRANSFERS.
870 UNITED NATIONS PLAZA 20-ANEW YORK NY 10017
WIRE TRANSFER/AUDIT UNIT


Our Ref: WB/NF/UN/XX029

ATTN: BENEFICIARY,

IRREVOCABLE RELEASE OF YOUR PAYMENT

We write to inform you that, we have been authorized by the international community in conjunction with the World bank to investigate the unnecessary delay of your Outstanding Contract Payment. We have also been empowered to recommend and approve your claims for payment if certified as genuine. During the course of our investigation, we discovered with dismay that your payment has been unnecessarily delayed by some corrupt officials of the Bank who are Trying to divert the beneficiaries' Fund into their private accounts.
Please reconfirm your information .

Please reply to ; unitednation44@live.com

To forestall this, security for your funds has been organized and for the safety of your funds we have been specifically advised to release this payment to you either by a Telegraphic Transfer into your Designated Account, by a Certified Bank Draft or through special Cash Delivery. We have also agreed with the Presidency that we will make this payment via the United Nations Accredited Bank to avoid the hopeless situation created by the Officials of the Previous Bank.

We are happy to inform you that based on our recommendation your outstanding Contract Fund of ten Million, five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars ($US10.5M) has been credited in your favor in our Accredited Bank's Escrow Account.Please reconfirm your information .
Please reply to ; unitednation44@live.com

You are advised to furnish me with this below information:

1. Your Full Name
2. Shipping Address
3. Telephone Number (Cell Phone if any)
4. Age and Marital Status
5. Occupation
We expect your urgent response to this email to enable us monitor this payment effectively.
CONGRATULATIONS!

MR. BAN KI-MOON,
SECRETARY.
UNITED NATIONS,
NEW YORK.



Anti-fraud resources: