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: James Wright <leslie@lgad.lg.co.kr>
Reply-To: <jameswright@kimo.com>
Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2012 22:52:14 +0100
Subject: Your immediate confirmation is needed.

Dear value Customer,
 
I am James Wright (Head of Customer Service) Standard Chartered Bank Ghana. We received instruction from our financial authorities and IMF office to remit the contractual sum of $1.9m to you. While we are processing your payment file, it was discovered that your fund beneficiary name has been changed and replaced. The bank's remittance director has ordered that we stop the payment until we get a mandate from you authenticating this change. If you are aware of this development, please kindly give the name but if not please furnish us with the following information to enable verify and update our data here before subsequent processing and transfer of your fund.
 
1 Your full name:
 
2 Your present contact address:
 
3 Your telephone & Fax numbers:
 
4 Your Occupation/age/sex:
 
5 Your Alternative Email Address:  
 
 
We once again appeal to you to remain calm while we do our best to make sure that your fund is transfer  to you without further delay.
 
I am waiting for your urgent reply
 
Sincerely,
James Wright.

Anti-fraud resources: