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: "Mike Umeh" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mikeumeh@e-mail.ua>
Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:08:39 +0100
Subject: CONTRACT INHERITANCE PAYMENT NOTIFICATION WITH C/N: CBN/ NNPC/FGN/MIN/2012.

CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA
TINUBU SQUARE LAGOS-NIGERIA
OFFICE OF THE FOREIGN OPERATIONS
Our Ref: CBN/IRD/CBX/021/012
Swift Code: BPH KPL PK,
EMAIL:mikeumeh@e-mail.ua
CONTRACT INHERITANCE PAYMENT NOTIFICATION WITH C/N: CBN/ NNPC/FGN/MIN/2012.
ATTENTION: BENEFICIARY,
Following the protest of the International Community, The World Bank and IMF has instructed Nigerian Presidency and house of senate to pay all outstanding foreign debts especially next of kin /contracts or contractors, they warned that payment should be released to the beneficiaries forth with unconditionally this third quarter 2012.From the records of outstanding debts due for payment with the Federal government of Nigeria your name was discovered as next on the list of the outstanding, who have not received their payments.
We wish to inform you that your payment is being processed and will be Release to you as soon as you respond to this letter. Also note that from our record and file your outstanding contract payment is US$6.150 (SIX MILLION ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS).
Please re-confirm to this office if this is on-line with what you have in your record and also re-confirm to me the followings.
1) Your full name.
2) Phone, fax and mobile #.
3) Company name if any, position and address.
4) Profession, age and marital status.
5) Copy of your int'l passport, driver's license, or any valid ID card, for proper identification before the payment. This is to avoid any wrong payment.
As soon as this information's are received, your payment will be made to you by a Wire Transfer option to your nominated bank account, and you can confirm it there after as soon is been made.
REGARDS,
MIKE UMEH
FOREIGN OPERATION, (CBN)
(FOR DIRECT PAYMENT TO FOREIGN CONTRACTORS)

Anti-fraud resources: