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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. Vinod Thomas," (may be fake)
Reply-To: <payment_center@yahoo.cn>
Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2012 07:56:11 -0700
Subject: The World Bank Director-General, Evaluation

INTERNATIONAL FUNDS TRANSFER / AUDIT UNIT)
UNITED NATIONS (WORLD BANK ASSISTED PROGRAMME)
DIRECTORATE OF INTERNATIONAL
PAYMENT AND TRANSFERS.
WIRE TRANSFER/AUDIT UNIT
OUR REF: WB/NF/UN/XX027
WEBSITE: www.imf.org
           
 
        IRREVOCABLE RELEASE OF YOUR PAYMENT
ATTN: BENEFICIARY,
 
I am Mr. Vinod Thomas, The World Bank Director-General, Evaluation. This message is based on the meeting which the United Nation (UN), European Union (EU) and African Union (AU) held in London United Kingdom on 15th of August 2011 regarding your expenses which you made for failed Transactions like Contract Fund, bank transfer, Lottery Fund transfer and inheritance fund. According to the International Monetary Funds Agency (I.M.F), they discovered that your payment has been unnecessarily delayed by corrupt officials of the Banks  And Legal Attorneys who are Trying to divert your money into their private accounts, and we want to use this opportunity to inform you that some of this fraudsters has been curbed and their account has been also  frozen, regarding to the meeting the UN, EU, AU held, all the money that was recovered from their account must be used to compensate the victims. This is to fight crime and corruption/fraud globally and you are advice not to fall into their hands any more after&
 
Note: You are advised to contact the PAYMENT CENTER to set up for this payment by WORLD BANK with your contact details . And also be informed that the amount to be paid to you through an ATM CARD/BANK TRANSFER is $8,500,000USD . Meanwhile, PAYMENT CLAIM CENTER  {PCC} have received your payment authority/irrevocable release/unconditional payments guarantee by the executive directors of United Nation (UN), European Union (EU) and African Union (AU) to pay you this $8,500,000USD, we will be waiting for your swift email response to enable our payment officer to guide you through on how you are to receive your funds without any further delay.
 
Cogratulations in Advance.
 
Mr. Vinod Thomas,
The World Bank Director-General, Evaluation

Anti-fraud resources: