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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: Christopher Washburn <c.washburn@interpoluk.net>
Date: Sat, 4 May 2013 19:40:31 +0100
Subject: URGENT !!!

Dear Sir,

I am writing to you officially because we recovered some funds we think
belongs to you.

I will want you to confirm by writing back if the funds were supposedly to
be delivered to you.

The funds totaling 786,050 United States Dollars and 120,100 British
Pounds were recovered during our raid on Southern Perimeter and Bedfont
Road (few meters from British Airways Cargo Center and Cargo Terminal),
just some minutes away from Heathrow Airport Area.

I am Christopher Washburn, Criminal Investigator and Inspector with
Interpol United Kingdom. Myself and my men got wind of the nefarious and
suspicious activities of two young men posing as Diplomats, who arrived
Heathrow Airport early Saturday morning from West Africa, with boxes, and
they were aboard an Emirates Airline enroute to Dubai, but stopped at
Heathrow with the boxes and did not want to board to Dubai again.

These two young men then went to Southern Perimeter, dislodged the boxes
which contained those amount mentioned, and were trying to clean them.

From intelligent sources at the Heathrow Airport and information we
gathered, they defaced the money (coat it with black substance), then
boarded the aircraft, and got here so they can remove the defacement, and
then use the funds themselves.

They were actually on the act of removing the defacement just behind the
Cargo Center when our team swooped in.

The two men ran, and we could only get the funds (which they have only
remove the defacement partially), and some chemical substance that they
were using to remove the defacement.

We saw a parcel which had your name on it addressed " Deliver to ... "
and immediately we concluded it was supposed to be delivered to you,but
these crooks were trying to divert and swindle it.

We gathered all, including the partially removed defaced moneys ,the
parcel, and the chemical and we took it along.

I want you to confirm ownership, and if you were expecting delivery of
such amount, and also we need to either deliver it to you, or get an
expert to clean up the defacement, lodge in any account of your choice as
you may request.

The simple thing to do here now, is whether you want it to be sent to you
just as it is now with the partial defacement, so we do that arrangement
to you, or you prefer we get the expert to clean the money, and then you
give us an account of yours to deposit it into.

Please read carefully and reply with the understanding that you have
understood what was explained to you, as we have not much time.

Yours Sincerely,

Christopher Washburn
Interpol UK.
Shoreham/Southampton Road
+44-2033185292/+441612418018

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