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: "ATM CARD UPDATE" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <johnsmith11@fastwebmail.it>
Date: Tue, 9 Feb 2010 00:19:07 -0800
Subject: Please get back to me ASAP

Dear Sir/Madam,
 
 
 
This is to officially inform you about our recent agreement with the Federal Government of Nigeria to handle all their foreign contract payments. Based on this development we have verified your contract/inheritance file and discovered reasons why you are yet to receive your payment. It is because of irregularities and complications discovered on your payment file by our technical experts in respect to your contract /inheritance payment requirements which have just been duly rectified.
 
 
 
However, our intelligent monitory unit to stop any further dealings with impostors and non-recommended officials in the bank has informed us, such acts must stop for security reasons, if you wish to receive your payment in time and accordingly since we have decided to bring a solution to your problem, right now we have arranged your payment through our Atm swift card payment center of {oceanic Bank Plc}, that is the latest instruction by our President Chief, Umaru Musa Yar"adua (GCFR) Federal Republic of Nigeria through the Minister of Finance Mrs. Nenadi Usman. Below is the arrangement.
 
 
 
The swift card center will send you an Atm card which you will use to withdrew your money from any Atm machine in any part of the world, but the maximum is (Twenty thousand dollars ) per day, so if you like to receive your fund five hundred thousand dollars $500.000.00 this way please do let us know by contacting the Atm card payment center of {Oceanic Bank Plc}, so contact the ATM swift card center on this email.
1) Address where you want them to send the card through diplomatic courier Service (P.O Box not accepted) 
2) Your full name and total amount you are expecting, Instead of losing your fund.  
3} You’re direct telephone numbers 
4} A copy of your international passport 
 
 
 
Please indicate to the card center the total sum you are expecting and for your information, you have to stop any further communication with any institution or office until you receive the Atm card. Note: because of impostors, we hereby issue you our code of conduct tag number, which is (805) so you must have to indicate this code when contacting the card center. We await your urgent response as soon as you receive this mail.
 
 
 
Best Regards,
 
 
Sir. John Smith
 

Anti-fraud resources: