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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:

Fraud email example:

From: "ECTB Bank" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <accountant_frankcruz@yahoo.cn>
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 01:17:45 +0200
Subject: From: ECTB Bank

Our Ref. ECTB05/698?3951FAX
From: ECTB,
 
 
This message is from the Banking Operation of the ECTB Bank, this is to notify you that we have your fund in the total tune of USD$930, 000, 00 which was deposited in your name by the UK council voluntary organization.
 
Due to your failure  in responding to the formal notice that was mailed to your mailing address, we encountered problem in mailing the Bank Draft directly to your home address, at this time, there is someone from your country at our head office claiming that you sent him to act on behalf of you for the collection of your Bank Draft, the man also stated that you have handed over the right to him as the legal beneficiary, he confirmed that he is ready to pay for the logistic fee which is $395 for the release of the Bank Draft to him, he has been held right away for verification purpose, you are to get back to us and verify if you actually sent any one for the collection of your Bank Draft.
 
Please be kindly advised that we would not authorize our Remittance Department to release the Bank Draft to him since the fund clearly bears your name as the legal beneficiary, the fund in question was a compensation donation to you from the UK Council Voluntary Organization
 
 
 
Before our remittance department would be able to hand over your Bank Draft to the man at our Head Office, we would need you to verify if you actually handed over the right to this person to receive your Bank Draft as the appointed beneficiary, henceforth, you are to respond back to this mail without any further hesitation, if we do not receive any response from you in the next 4 official working days, we would forward a notice to our Remittance Department to hand over your Bank Draft to the person that is been held at our head office.
 
To verify this above issue, please contact Mr. Frank Cruz with the email address as provided below:
 
Email Address: accountant_frankcruz@yahoo.cn
 
 
Yours Sincerely,
Mrs. Susan Broke
Chief Co-coordinator,
ECTB Bank.

Anti-fraud resources: