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: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: wumto99@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2010 04:47:36 -0000 (GMT)
Subject: Western Union(R) Compersation From UN



How are you today?

This is to inform you that we have already sent you USD5000.00 dollars
through Western union as we have been mandated to transfer to you the full
compensation sum payment of USD1.800,000.00 via western union by this
government.

In this regards, i tried calling you yesterday to give you this
information through phone conversation in order to prevent the chances of
cyber criminals laying hold of this vital information but coundn't get to
you. So i decided to email you the MTCN, Sender’s Name and other
relevant infos so that can pick up this USD5000.00 to enable us send
another USD5000.00 by tomorrow as you knows we will be sending you only
USD5000.00 per day. Please pick up this information and go to any western
union office near you in your country to pick up the USD5000.00 and email
us so that we can further with the rest amount tomorrow.

Manager Mr Roy Charlton
Tell: +234-813-121-8412
Email: wumto@live.com

call or email me once you picked up this USD5000.00 today.
Here is the western union information to pick up the compensation

MTCN : 622 159 4597
Sender's Name: Linda Benson
Question: Honest
Answer:Trust
Amount: USD5000.00

I am waiting for your call once you pick up this transfer

Regards
Mr. Martin Noam
Chief Operating Officer
Western Union®nsfer



Anti-fraud resources: