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: "International Police Department" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <protocol@admin.in.th>
Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2012 18:13:47 +0100
Subject: INFORMATION REGARDING YOUR PAST TRANSACTIONS

FROM INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL POLICE ORGANIZATION
FORCE HEAD QUARTERS BENIN, WEST AFRICA
 
Attention Beneficiary,
My name is Hon. Justice Moore the inspector general of West African Interpol, This is to inform you that the government of this country are sending you the sum of $1,000,000.00 Dollars which you have been waiting to receive, The government is refunding this funds as one of the scam victim.
 
We were able to get your email through those that extort money from you when the police got them arrested; one of them gave us your email address. The president of this country His Excellency Dr. Yayi Boni has sent aside the sum of $1,000,000.00 Dollars in an ATM MASTER CARD to be sent to you through Courier Company. We thereby have made a concrete arrangement with the United Nations Delivery Service for a safe delivery to your door-step.
 
Note that the entire delivery fee has been paid on your behalf. But you are advice to send only $65 immediately to our protocol office for your personal identification numbers (Pin) activation because our agent will proceed to the central bank of Benin first thing tomorrow morning to process your pin code before your consignment will leave this country to your country.
 
This will also enable our office confirm that you are the real owner of this Email address to avoid any mistake, below are the information's you will use in sending the $65 for the ATM pin code.
 
Send the $65 to our protocol officer and email him at protocol@admin.in.th
Receiver's Name...UKAGBUE EMMANUEL
Country...Cotonou, Benin Republic
Text Question...WE
Answer...US
Postal code...+229
Amount...$65
 
Mtcn...?
Your senders’ country...?
Your senders name...?
 
Contact our Protocol Officer with the information above for more updates and for quick delivery of your ATM MASTER CARD, Here in the picture are the SCAMMERS that were arrested which include a woman. Please we are waiting for you to enable us go to court with those thief’s before 12 noon tomorrow.
 
Yours in service
Justice Moore

Anti-fraud resources: