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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: From Modric Jones (Mr) <info@federal.com>
Reply-To: wu.africa.dept00@9.cn
Date: Wed, 03 Aug 2011 21:50:00 +1000
Subject:



Attention:

The Federal Government of Nigeria through
provisions in Section 419 of the Criminal Code
came up with punitive measures to deter and
punish
offenders.The Advance Fee Fraud section deals
mainly with cases of advance fee fraud
(commonly called 419) such as obtaining by
false pretence
through different fraudulent schemes e.g.
contract scam, credit card scam, inheritance
scam, job scam, loan scam, lottery scam, ?
wash wash?± scam
(money washing scam), marriage scam.
Immigration scam, counterfeiting and religious
scam. It also investigates cyber crime cases.

This is to officially announce to you that some
scam Syndicates were apprehended in Lagos,
Nigeria few weeks ago and after several
interrogations and
tortures your details were among those
mentioned by some of the scam Syndicates as
one of the victims of their operations.

After proper investigations and research at
Western Union Money Transfer and Money Gram
office to know if you have truly sent money to
the scam
Syndicates through Western Union Money
Transfer or Money Gram, your name was found
in Western Union Money Transfer database
amongst those
that have sent money through Western Union
Money Transfer to Nigeria and this proves that
you have truly been swindled by those
unscrupulous
persons by sending money to them in the
course of getting one fund or the other that is
not real, right now we are working hand in hand
with Western
Union and Interpol to track every fraudsters
down, do not respond to their e-mails, letters
and phone calls any longer they are scammers
and you
should be very careful to avoid being a victim to
fraudsters any longer because they have
nothing to offer you but to rip-off what you have
worked
hard to earn.

In this regard a meeting was held between the
Board of Directors of FIIB/The Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and as a
consequence of our investigations it was agreed
that the sum of Fifty thousand US Dollars (US
$50,000.00) should be transferred to you out of
the
funds that Federal Government of Nigeria has
set aside as a compensation to everyone who
have by one way or the other sent money to
fraudsters in
Nigeria.

***Please note that we will NO LONGER be liable
for any loss, cost or expense, whatsoever,
suffered or incurred by You in connection with
the
fraudsters. Be warned! We have deposited your
fund at Western Union Money Transfer agent
location EMS Post office Edo state, Nigeria. We
have
submitted your details to them so that your
fund can be transferred to you. We have also
paid the Registration and Safe Keeping fees
and for security
reasons we have also insured your fund to avoid
misappropriation.

Contact the Western Union agent office through
the email address stated below inform them
about this notification letter and the transfer of
your fund;

wu.africa.dept00@9.cn
Yours sincerely,
Modric Jones (Mr)
+234-085 510 3925

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