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"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: "Mr. Thomas J. Harrington" <officefliee88@gmail.com>
Reply-To: fbi_benin63@yahoo.com
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2012 18:30:08 +0100 (BST)
Subject: DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION.








DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION.
FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. 
J. Edgar Hoover Building, 935 Pennsylvania Avenue,

NW Washington, D.C. 20535-0001 USA.
 

FBI.gov is an official site of the U.S. Federal
Government, U.S. Department of Justice
 

                                                           Attention:  Funds
Beneficiary,



  Ref.: FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION FINAL
WARNING



This is the final warning you are going to receive from this office and
I hope you understand how many times this message has been sent to
you?
 
We have warned you so many times and you have decided to ignore our
e-mails or because you believe we have not been instructed to get you arrested
and today if you fail to respond back to us with the payment then we would first
send a letter to the mayor of the city where you reside and direct them to close
your Bank Account until you have been jailed and all your properties will be
confiscated by the Federal Bureau Of Investigation.
 
Your ID which we
have in our database has been sent to all the Crimes Agencies in America for
them to insert you in their website as Internet Fraudster and to warn people
from having any deals with you; this would have been solved all this while if
you had gotten the Certificate Signed, Endorsed and Stamped as you where
instructed in the e-mail sent to you earlier.
 
This is the Federal Bureau
Of Investigation (FBI) am using this medium to inform you that there is no more
time left to waste; as stated earlier you must do all you can to have the
Document Endorsed, Signed and Stamped without failure and you must adhere to
this directives to avoid you blaming yourself at last when we must have arrested
and jailed you for life and all your properties confiscated.
 
You failed
to comply with our directives and that was the reason why we didn't hear from
you on the 3rd as our Executive Director Mr. Thomas S. Ben has already been
notified about you getting the process completed and right now the Warrant Of
Arrest has been signed against you and it will be carried out in the next
48hours.
 
We have investigated and found out that you didn't have any
idea when the fraudulent deal was committed with your information's/identity and
right now if your ID is placed on our website as a wanted person, I believe you
know that it will be a shame to you and your entire family because after then it
will be announce in all the local stations that you are wanted by the Federal
Bureau Of Investigation.
 
As a good Christian and a honest man, I decided
to see how I could be of help to you because I would not be happy to see you end
up in jail and all your properties confiscated all because your information's
was used to carry out a fraudulent transactions, I called the Supreme Court of
Benin and they directed me to a private attorney who could help you get the
process done and he stated that he will assist you securing the document at the
sum of US$66.00 Only and I believe this process is cheaper for you.
 
You
need to do everything possible within today and tomorrow to get this process
done because our Executive Director Mr. Thomas S. Ben has called to inform me
that the warrant of arrest has been signed against you and once it has been
approved, then the arrest will be carried out, and from our investigations we
learnt that you were the person that forwarded your identity to one
impostor/fraudsters in Benin when he had a deal with you about the transfer of
some illegal funds into your Bank Account which is valued at the sum of
US$3,500,000.00.
 
I pleaded on your behalf so that this agency could give
you 72 hours so that you could get this process done because I learnt that you
were sent several e-mail without getting a response from you, please bear it in
mind that this is the only way that I can be able to help you at this moment or
you would have to face the law and its consequences once it has befall you. You
would make the payment through Western Union Money Transfer or Money Gram with
the below details.

TRANSFER TO WESTERN UNION OR
MONEY-GRAM:-
 
RECEIVERS NAME::::Mr INNOCENT N.OBELUO
ADDRESS: BENIN,:::::
REPUBLIC
TEST QUESTION: :::GOOD
TEST ANSWER: ::::GOOD
AMOUNT:
::::US$66
MTCN NUMBER::::
SENDERS FULL NAME:::
SENDER FULL
ADDRESS:::
DIRECT TELEPHONE NUMBER::

Make sure that you didn't
hesitate in making the payment down to the agency by today or tomorrow so that
they can secure the Certificate without any further delay. After all this
process has been carried out, then we would have to proceed to the Bank for the
transfer of your compensation funds which is valued at the sum of
US$3,500,000.00 which was suppose to have been transferred to you all this
while.

Note: all the crimes agencies have been contacted on this regards
and we shall trace and arrest you if you disregard this instructions. You are
given a grace today to make the payment for the document after which your
failure to do that will attract a maximum arrest and finally you will be
appearing in court for act of Terrorism, Money Laundering and Drug Trafficking
Charges, so be warned not to try any thing funny because you are been
watched.
 
Thanks for your co-operation.
 
Yours Faithfully.
For
the FBI Office
Mr. Thomas J. Harrington
Associate Deputy
Director
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/executives/harrington





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