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: "David williams" <student@saintluc.com>
Reply-To: <allied_plc@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2011 14:10:07 -0700
Subject: You Funds Has Been Transfer,

UNITED NATIONS/ WORLD BANK
HEADQUARTER GENEVA,
PALAIS DES NATIONS
# 1211 GENEVA 10,
SWITZERLAND
 
You are urgently informed that your inheritance funds $10.5M has been
transferred 19/1/2011 into your designated bank account following the
order of United Nations/ World Bank
 
You have been asked to contact the telex room at Allied Irish Bank
London in person of Mike Daly for the copy of telex tracer for
immediate transfer into your account
 
However, if you haven’t seen the money into your account please do not
hesitate to contact the bank immediately with this email address
allied_plc@hotmail.com or alliedbankplc@yahoo.co.nz
 
Congratulations have a great and blissful day.
 
Best regards,
 
David williams

Anti-fraud resources: