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: "FOREIGN PAYMENT DEPT." (may be fake)
Reply-To: <c_office@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2010 12:33:51 +0100
Subject: YOUR LAST PAYMENT NOTIFICATION

FOREIGN PAYMENTS DEPARTMENT
St James's Park Underground Station
55 Broadway London SW1H 0BD United Kingdom

Attn: Beneficiary.

This is to officially notify you that your delayed Lottery/Inheritance payment has finally been approved to be paid to you within the next 72 hours. This instruction came to our office to contact you immediately for the transfer of your approved amount to your designated bank account without any further delay.

This office oversees and approves all foreign payments coming out from Europe, Africa, Asia and sometimes USA. Our job is to make sure that beneficiary's funds are remitted to them within 72 hours once they have completed the requirements.

Just few hours ago, a man by name Mr. Tim Mallett contacted our office informing us that you have given him instruction and authority to receive the approved US$7,900,000.00 (Seven Million Nine Hundred Thousand US Dollars) only on your behalf. According to him, he said that you asked him to represent you in receiving this amount also he forwarded an account where your funds should be transferred to immediately.

Here is the information he forwarded to us for your own confirmation:

Tim Mallett
G&T Volunteers
370 Lacroix Street
Chatham, Ontario Canada
N7M 2W3
TD Canada Trust
255 King Street at 3rd
Chatham, Ontario Canada N7M 1E6
Account# 0011-6243094
Transit & Branch # 060-00112-004

We want you to confirm to us immediately if you at any time instructed the above person to receive this amount on your behalf and if no, you are requested to immediately reconfirm your own details for immediate transfer of the above sum to your account.

Your Full name....................
Full address......................
Tel & Fax No......................
Bank name.........................
Address..........................
Tel & Fax No....................
Routing No......................
Account No.....................

Upon receipt of your confirmation, we shall immediately process your payment Documents and forward it to our approved paying Bank to carry out your transfer within the next 72 hours after processing. If you sent this man, do reconfirm also to enable us process the payment and carry out transfer to him without any further delay. We will appreciate your urgent response and confirmation as this office has been given until two weeks to carry out all approved payments or return them as unclaimed payment.

Thanking you for letting us serve you better.

Yours faithfully,
Mr. James Peck
Director of Foreign Payments
United Kingdom


Anti-fraud resources: