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: "U.S DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <u.sdepartment_treasury@rediffmail.com>
Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2012 10:01:44 -0700
Subject: Card Owner,

U.S DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
1500 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, NW
WASHINGTON, DC 20220.
TELEPHONE: 206-350-9748
 
Dear Card Owner,
Your ATM CARD Delivery Tracking Number: 875784066808
We were authorized by the newly appointed United Nation Secretary General, and the Governing body of the United Nations Debt Reconciliation Unit, to investigate the unnecessary delay on your payment, recommended and approved in your favor. During the course of our investigation, we discovered with dismay that your payment has been unnecessarily delayed by corrupt officials of the Bank and Government regulatory organs in Nigeria who are trying to divert your funds into their private accounts.
However, our reason for contacting you on this day is to inform you that your ATM CARD was dispatched through FedEx but at the point of dispatch on the 9th of January, 2012 at 8:42am to one Mr. William Howard our Office, he is your representative and that you gave him due authorization to receive the package on your behalf and he presented an Affidavit to our Office claiming to be Approved by the High Court of Nigeria and duly signed by you.
We sent you series of emails in this regards but you did not respond back to us; However, in the course of our routine scrutinization into our Dispatch Alert, we discovered that the document presented to us by Mr. Williams Howard was not approved by the High Court of Nigeria and we discovered that Mr. William Howard was an impostor trying to claim your approved payment valued sum parcel via (ATM CARD valued $5500000.00 USD) which has been delivered to our unclaimed property department in Chicago, IL USA.
For your information, the parcel has been Delivered to our unclaimed property department and To verify this notification, go to WWW.fedex.com and insert the tracking number below to view delivery status. Your Tracking Number: 875784066808 Thus, you are advised to contact the office by providing the information requested below in order to effect the change and re-direct the parcel to your address:
FULL NAME:
FULL ADDRESS:
PHONE NUMBER:
Below is the information of the officer that shall be processing your transaction. Dont fail to contact him immediately you receive this email.
Lucky James
Officer-In-Charge
Unclaimed Propety Department.
E-mail:lucky.james14@aim.com
We expect your urgent attention to this email to enable us monitor this payment effectively. Inline with the mode of operation of the Federal Express Courier Service, you shall be required to pay the sum of $199.00 (Only) as the RE-Direction Fee. Once you contact the Office, please request for payment option from them in other to avoid further delay which might result into demur-rage and excessive demand for fees.
Timothy Geithner,
Secretary of the Treasury
United States Department of the Treasury
Telephone: 206-350-9748 About me: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Geithner
 

Anti-fraud resources: