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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: "MS BETTY WRIGHT" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrssuzan@skymail.mn>
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2011 13:00:17 -0700
Subject: FROM MRS BETTY WRIGHT FOREIGN DEBT RECONCILIATION/ A MESSAGE YOU MOST READ

UNITED NATION FACT FINDING AND APPROVAL OF FOREIGN DEBT PAYMENT
(WORLD BANK ASSISTED PROGRAMME) DIRECTORATE OF INTERNATIONAL PAYMENT
AND TRANSFERS.
870 UNITED NATIONS PLAZA 20-ANEW YORK NY 10017
WIRE TRANSFER/AUDIT UNIT
Our Ref: WB1/NF/UN/XX027
DATE: 10/17/2011
 
   ATTN: BENEFICIARY,
 
FOREIGN DEBT RECONCILIATION
 
 
We have actually been authorized by the Presidency and the governing board of
the Federal Reserve Bank, the British Government with the help of the
World Bank to investigate the unnecessary delay of your inheritance/contract payment, Recommend and approve your claims for Payment if certified as genuine.
 
Your name among others were forwarded to my humble office for verification of
your surname in accordance with the beneficiary record, during the course of
Our investigation, we discovered with dismay that your payment has been
Unnecessarily delayed by corrupt officials of the Bank, who are Trying
to divert Your funds into their private accounts.
 
As I found out that you have almost met all the statutory requirements in
Respect of your pending payment, a lot of people are interested in
your payment And those people are merely doing paper works with you and that
explains why you receive emails and phone calls from different people with claims to be in possession of your payment. To forestall this, security for your funds was organized in the form of your Personal Identification number (PIN) this will enable only you have direct Control over this fund.
 
 
We have also agreed with the IMF that we will monitor This payment
ourselves to avoid the hopeless situation created by the Officials of the bank. We are happy to inform you that based on our verification your surname matched with the beneficiary?s payment record, your outstanding Contract Fund of TEN
Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars ($US10.5M). We shall upon hearing from you, forward the contact details of the approved Remittance Director to you who is now in charge of releasing the above stated sum of money to you to enable you make contact with her and also indicate your preferred mode of payment.
 
You are advised to furnish me with this below information:
(1) Your full name(2) Address (3)Cell phone /fax and mobile
(4) Occupation/position (6) Age and Marital Status (7)equity line of credit
{yes}or {no}
 
We expect your urgent response to this email to enable us monitor this payment
Effectively.
 
 
CONGRATULATIONS!
MS.BETTY WRIGHT
SENIOR SPECIAL ASSISTANT
TO:
MR. BAN KI-MOON,
SECRETARY. UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK.
 

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