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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: CENTRAL BANK NOTIFICATION <webalertcbn01@att.net>
Reply-To: cbn_official@sify.com
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2010 04:15:55 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: IMMEDIATE PAYMENT RELEASE NOTIFICATION


Office of the Director of Operations
International Credit Settlement,
Central bank of Nigeria,
27th April, 2010.
 
Attention: Esteemed Customer
 
This is to officially
inform you that we have verified your contract payment/inheritance file
and found out that why you have not received your payment is because
you have not fulfilled the obligations given to you in respect of your
contract/inheritance payment.
 
Secondly we have been
informed that you are still dealing with none official of our daughter
commercial banks, and your attempt to secure the release of your fund
proved abortive.
 
Since we have decided
to bring a solution to your problem, we wish to advise you that such an
illegal act must stop if you wish to receive your payment.
 
This office have been
mandated by the federal executive council to issue out ATM/debit card
valued two million, eight hundred and fifty thousand united states
dollars only ($ 2,850,000.00) as initial payment for this fiscal year
2010 through our swift card payment center.
 
You will use the
ATM/debit card to withdraw your money in any ATM machine in any part of
the world. You can also pay for good and service at point of sale
terminal.
 
Kindly contact the account officer: Micheal Dickson PhD
(cbn_official@sify.com) and provide the below information:
 
1. Your full name:
2. Phone and fax number:
3. Contact address:
4. Your age and current occupation:
 
note that because of
impostors, we hereby issue you our code of conduct, which is
(atm-y2k10). So you have to indicate this code when contacting this
office by using it as your subject.
 
Kind regards,
Alhaji Musa Bello
Head Auditor
International credit settlement
Central Bank of Nigeria.
 
 
Central bank of Nigeria ©2010. All rights reserved

Anti-fraud resources: