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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.

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

Fraud email example:

From: Westpacbank <yemointer@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: bankwestpac@yahoo.com
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2010 03:17:47 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: VERY UIRGENT!!!


Dear Contractor,
 
Following the directive of Nigerian Goverment regarding your money owe to you, it is our pleasure to inform you that, our bank has been authorized to immediately effect the Wire transfer of your funds into your bank account with the next 72hrs from now.
 
Base in the above subject matter, you are urgently requested to forward immediately your bank account information, to enable us begain to comput the wire processing/Transfer of your funds.
 
Please act very swiftly to this message, so that we can commence the transfer process immediately.
 
Thanks and expecting to hear from you.
 
Patric Snooz
Account Dept,
Telex,Dept
Westpacbank
London,Uk




Anti-fraud resources: