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: "Grant" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <stevegranttt@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2012 05:01:16 -0700
Subject: Payment Notification

Barclays Bank Plc-Foreign Operations Dept;
1 Churchill Place, London,
E14 5HP, United Kingdom,
Tel: +447011138865
Fax: +447031985649
 
 
Dear Beneficiary,
We have noted with great concern the wrongful withholding
of your payment by a syndicate of corrupt bank officials
who made several attempt to divert your funds into their
private accounts. This discovery was made recently
by a report submitted to our office by a delegate from the
International Monetary  Agantcy .
 
Based on this report, We wish to inform you that the board
of trustees and management of Barclay's Bank International
Plc London has finalized and have being given an Immediate
transfer approval order by the British Ministry of Finance
in conjunction with the United Nations and Executive members
of Bank of England, following with the instructions we
received from Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth, the Queen
of England. to transfer your overdue Inheritance fund to
you, the approved sum of US$ 10.700,000,00 ( Ten Million
Seven Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) also be
informed that we are prepared to give you the best of
services in this Bank with a guarantee that your
Approved Fund will be wire into your nominated Bank Account
within 4 Bank working days as soon as you complete all the
transferring procedures with any option you may prefer to
receive your fund below for your own good.
(1) By Bank to Bank Wire Transfer
(2) By Online bank transfer
 
In confirmation to this massage, you are advice by  the
management & board of trustees of the bank to furnish
us with your name and contact information
for immediate process of transfer to confirm with what we
have in our records to avoid wrongful diversion.
 
Yours Faithfully,
Rev . Steve Grant,
Remittance Director.
BARCLAY'S BANK PLC LONDON

Anti-fraud resources: