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: Finance Dept <financedept29@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: alhajiobyissah8@hotmail.com
Date: Sat, 17 Sep 2011 03:08:22 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: reply asap




Federal Ministry of Finance
New Federal Secretariat Complex
Shehu Shagari Way,
Central Area Abuja Nigeria.

We received email from the Apex Bank of [CBN] to pay you with the total sum of $7.5m.Then I sent confirmation email to the Central Bank as I was waiting to get reply,one Mr James Ford wrote to me on Friday last week from the United state,claiming that he is your brother/partner,that we should stop contacting you as you had car accident and on sick bed. And as such your total sum should be wired to him via his bank account in stated below.
Please as a matter of urgency, you are required to verify the following information and inform us if you are aware or know anything concerning his claim over your funds which the Central Bank has approved for your payment.

Account Name: Mr James Ford Ltd,
A/C #USD114-1025567-8,
Bank Name: Standard Chattered Bank
Swift Code:SCBL 11K111.

You can also email me via alhajiobyissah@maktoob.com ,
Best Regards
Alhaji Issah

Anti-fraud resources: