419 scam: "Dr. Ernest Obi"<www.cbn@w.cn> Notice!!!

joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet

Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days

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:

This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "inheritance funds" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "central bank of nigeria" (the name of a person or institution often appearing in 419 scams)
- "abuja" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
This email message is a next of kin scam.
This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- +2348123900761

Fraud email example:

From: "Dr. Ernest Obi" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <foreignoperation.cbng@mynet.com>
Date: Mon, 9 Aug 2010 02:10:47 -0600
Subject: Notice!!!

Attention beneficiary,
After the just concluded World Bank Summit held in Abuja, regarding the second quarter payment of 2010, your inheritance funds amounted to the sum of ($5.5MUSD) are among seventy seven other funds that were released and endorsed for immediate delivery to their beneficiaries. This payment is in reference to the on going Poverty Alleviation program organized by the World Bank, the United Nations Organization and the International Monetary Funds.

The official approved mode of payment for this exercise is “Bank to bank wire transfer as a result of scrutiny and bank fraud checks. Your payment will be made out from Central Bank of Nigeria in correspondence with our foreign reserve bank in London, England. You are hereby advised to respond to this notice as soon as possible for details. In your response to this notice, you should send accross your contact details to enable us cross-check with the ones we have in our files to ensure that we are communicating with the right beneficiary to avoid misdirection of funds and for us to commence the processing of your payment. Send down your contact details as stated below.

(1) Full names:
(2) Address:
(3) Phone, Fax and Mobile:
(4) Age:
(5) Occopation:
(6) Marital Status:

Failure to respond to this notice within three days of receipt will attract a cancellation of this payment till further notice because we are warned by the World Bank to conclude this payment within seven business days.
I will provide you with the details of your payment as soon as I hear from you.
Thanks.
Dr. Ernest Obi
Foreign Operation Service
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
+234-812-390-0761

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam