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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: FBI FEDERAL BUREAU INVESTIGATION <fbi.specialagent@one.co.il>
Reply-To: fbi-specialagent@one.co.il
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 23:02:59 +0800 (SGT)
Subject: THIS MESSAGE IS FROM (FBI) FEDERAL BUREAU INVESTIGATION YOUR URGENT REPLY IS NEEDED


FBI Headquarters in
Washington, d.c.
Federal bureau of investigation

J. Edgar Hoover building

935 Pennsylvania avenue,

Nw Washington, d.c. 20535-0001

Federal bureau of investigation
(fbi)
 
Attention, this is the final warning
you are going to receive from me do you get me?
 
I hope youre understand
how many times this message has been sent to you?.
 
We have warned you
so many times and you have decided to ignore our e-mails or because you believe
we have not been instructed to get you arrested, and today if you fail to
respond back to us with the payment then, we would first send a letter to the
mayor of the city where you reside and direct them to close your bank account
until you have been jailed and all your properties will be confiscated by the
fbi. We would also send a letter to the company/agency that you are working for
so that they could get you fired until we are through with our investigations
because a suspect is not suppose to be working for the government or any private
organization.
 
Your id which we have in our database been sent to all the
crimes agencies in America for them to inset you in their website as an internet
fraudsters and to warn people from having any deals with you. This would have
been solved all this while if you had gotten the certificate signed, endorsed
and stamped as you where instructed in the e-mail below. this is the federal
bureau of investigation (fbi) am writing in response to the e-mail you sent to
us and am using this medium to inform you that there is no more time left to
waste because you have been given from the 3rd of January. As stated earlier to
have the document endorsed, signed and stamped without failure and you must
adhere to this directives to avoid you blaming yourself at last when we must
have arrested and jailed you for life and all your properties
confiscated.
 
You failed to comply with our directives and that was the
reason why we didn't hear from you on the 3rd as our director has already been
notified about you get the process completed yesterday and right now the warrant
of arrest has been signed against you and it will be carried out in the next
48hours as strictly signed by the fbi director. We have investigated and found
out that you didn't have any idea when the fraudulent deal was committed with
your information's/identity and right now if you id is placed on our website as
a wanted person, i believe you know that it will be a shame to you and your
entire family because after then it will be announce in all the local channels
that you are wanted by the fbi. 
 
As a good Christian and a honest
man, I decided to see how i could be of help to you because i would not be happy
to see you end up in jail and all your properties confiscated all because your
information's was used to carry out a fraudulent transactions, i called the efcc
and they directed me to a private attorney who could help you get the process
done and he stated that he will endorse, sign and stamp the document at the sum
of $98.00 usd only and i believe this process is cheaper for you. You need to do
everything possible within today and tomorrow to get this process done because
our director has called to inform me that the warrant of arrest has been signed
against you and once it has been approved, then the arrest will be carried out,
and from our investigations we learnt that you were the person that forwarded
your identity to one impostor/fraudsters in Benin Republic last year when he had
a deal with you about the transfer of some illegal funds into your bank account
which is valued at the sum of $2.500,000.00 usd.
 
I pleaded on your
behalf so that this agency could give you the 2011/10/23 so that you could get
this process done because i learnt that you were sent several e-mail without
getting a response from you, please bear it in mind that this is the only way
that i can be able to help you at this moment or you would have to face the law
and its consequences once it has befall on you. You would make the payment
through money gram transfer or western union money transfer with the below
details.
 
Receiver name ==== Frank M. Okechukwu
Country======= Benin Republic

City====== Cotonou
Text
question==== when
Text answer===== today
Amount=====$98usd
Senders
name====== 
 
Send the payment details to me which are senders name and
address, mtcn number, text question and answer used and the amount sent. Make
sure that you didn't hesitate making the payment down to the agency by today so
that they could have the certificate endorsed, signed and stamped immediately
without any further delay. After all this process has been carried out, then we
would have to proceed to the bank for the transfer of your compensation funds
which is valued at the sum of $2.500,000.00 usd which was suppose to have been
transferred to you all this while.
 
Note/ all the crimes agencies have
been contacted on this regards and we shall trace and arrest you if you
disregard this instructions. You are given a grace today to make the payment for
the document after which your failure to do that will attract a maximum arrest
and finally you will be appearing in court for act of terrorism, money
laundering and drug trafficking charges, so be warned not to try any thing funny
because you are been watched. 
 
Thanks as i wait for your response

 
Respectively
Agent Ronald T.
Hosko.
Federal bureau of investigation
(fbi)

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