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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: "Mr. George Brown" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <f45432@yahoo.fr>
Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:17:39 +0100
Subject: Release of your funds ($4,500,000.00)

Merry Xmas,

As the year is fast coming to an end the Finance Government Nigeria wants
to release all pending winnings and transactions through the support of
the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to all winners and beneficiaries.

So right now I want to inform you that the delivery of your bank draft
valued for $4,500,000.00 can still commence to your location since your
bank draft valued ($4,500,000.00) still has up to a month before it
reaches its expiring date which should be enough time for you to cash
out your bank draft after you must have received it and deposited at
your banks or any local bank nearest to you.


For safety, your bank draft has been in a safe vault security company so
you are advised to send down a sum of $120 immediately to cover for
your security keeping charge and demurrage to enable the security company
release your bank draft for FedEx to commence delivery to your location.

At this point I will advise that you get back to me immediately with your
delivery details for reconfirmation before I send back to you instructions
on how to send over the $120 so delivery can effect.

NAME:
DELIVERY ADDRESS (State, City, Zip code, Nearest Airport):
PHONE NUMBER (Work/Home/Cell):

After the fees is confirmed and the above delivery details from you and
the Money ($120) has been sent across, delivery will commence and I will
advise that you should get back to me immediately so that you can conclude
with this while you still have time to cash out your bank draft ($4,500,000.00)
as soon as it gets to you.

Contact web address:
f45432@yahoo.fr
Phone: +234 802 335 0209

Await your urgent response.

Regards,
Mr. George Brown.

Anti-fraud resources: