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: ?Western Union Office NG <mtorres@cortenacional.gob.ec>
Reply-To: ?Western Union Office NG <wudepartmentng@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 08 Nov 2012 15:00:20 -0500 (ECT)
Subject: Good Day Beneficiary


Good Day Beneficiary,

I write to inform you that we have been given the mandate to transfer your
full compensation payment of $1,500,000.00 USD via western union by this
government.

We tried to give you the Western Union Instructions through phone, but we
could not locate your numbers in our database to reach you last week even
this morning.

So, I decided to email you the MTCN and Sender Names so that you can pick
up the USD5,000.00 to enable us send another USD5,000.00 by tomorrow as
you knows we will be sending you only USD5,000.00 per day.

Please pick up this information and run to any western union in your country
to pick up the USD5,000.00 and send us email back to send you another
payment tomorrow.

File in the following for the MTCN claim:

Your Name:______________
Your Country:____________
Your Tel/Mobile Number:_________________

Manager Mrs Sarah Jones

Thanks!
Mrs. Vanessa C. Foster
Western Union Online Coordinator

Anti-fraud resources: