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joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
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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.
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:
- "foreign remittance department" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
- "central bank of nigeria" (the name of a person or institution often appearing in 419 scams)
- "lagos" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mr Hillary White" <info@cbn.org>
Reply-To: mt103.payments@gmail.com
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2010 19:29:32 -0500
Subject: Last Notice.
CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA
HEAD QUARTER TINUBU SQUARE
LAGOS NIGERIA
Foreign remittance department
and international credit control
and financial surveillance
Telex 2838700, 28430
Tel/Fax: +1-206-339-1230
Attention: Beneficiary,
RE: PAYMENT AGAINST SWIFT MT103 UNCONDITIONAL PAYMENT FOR THE SUM OF $6.5
MILLION UNITED STATES OF AMERICA DOLLARS BEING PART- PAYMENT OF YOUR
CONTRCT FUND).
We refer to the above transaction and hereby confirm with corporate
responsibility under penalty of perjury that we have initiate by swift
transfer MT103 unconditional payment of the above stated sum to your
account stated below with TCF BANK being part-payment for the performance
of a contract with Federal Government of Nigeria:
TCF BANK 801 MARQUETTE AVE MPLS MN
ACCOUNT NUMBER: 65433545654
ROUTING; 543654324
ABA: 0923-3541
We will further confirm that the said fund is clear and of non criminal
and non terrorist origin, free from liens and encumbrances.
Transfer routing and authentication of the said funds was through Nat west
London to your above.
Yours Sincerely,
Mr. Hillary White.
Director international credit control and financial surveillance
Central bank of Nigeria (CBN)
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Anti-fraud resources:
