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: "MR.FIGO SANCHEZ" <debtreconciliationsnow@yahoo.co.jp>
Reply-To: <auditorgeneralimf@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 4 Jun 2010 16:34:06 -0700
Subject: FROM: OFFICE OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL

FROM: OFFICE OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (IMF),
WASHINGTON DC, USA.

ATTN: Beneficiary,

I am Mr. Figo Sanchez; I am the Chief Auditor at the IMF Headquarters in Washington DC, USA.

The IMF has mandated me to inform you that your fund ($3.5m) which was seized in West Africa has been released. This is following the intervention of the IMF after its recent General Auditing in all the West African Banks where it was discovered that a lot of funds were held up in many Banks in W/Africa.

We noted that the reason why these funds have not been paid to the owners are simply because they were unable to meet with the frivolous demands of these Banks. Most of these demands are seen as illegal and fraudulent so as a result of this, the IMF has used its regulatory powers to compel the Banks to release all the seized funds within their domain.

We have also directed that the funds be moved to HSBC Bank from where it will be remitted to the accounts of the Owners under normal regulatory procedures.

We are aware of the harsh situations that owners of these funds have passed through during the cause of these claims. We also found out that you were dealing totally with the wrong people with the wrong procedures. You are therefore informed that your fund will get to you this time because we have ensured that the whole transaction will be carried out in the United States under our monitoring so all the procedures that will be followed, will be truly "LEGAL".In order to help us with our confirmations here, we request you to furnish us with your full data.

All e-mail correspondence should be directed to this email address.I will inform you on the next procedure after you have updated us with your Data.

Regards,

MR. FIGO SANCHEZ,
OFFICE OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL,
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (IMF),
WASHINGTON DC, USA

Anti-fraud resources: