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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. Kevin Cassidy" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <KevinCassidy11@qq.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2013 20:04:02 +0200
Subject: GET BACK TO ME

Attn: beneficiary,
 
This is to officially inform you that it has come to our notice and we have thoroughly investigated by the help of our intelligence monitoring network system that you are having an illegal transaction with imposters claiming bank officials. Be informed that the federal bureau of investigation is aware of your predicament. During our investigation, it came to our notice that the reason why you have not received your payment is because you have not fulfilled your financial obligation giving to you in respect of your contract/inheritance payment. Therefore, we have contacted the federal ministry of finance London UK on your behalf and they have brought a solution to your problem.
During the course of our investigation, we discovered with dismay that your payment have been unnecessarily delayed by corrupt officials of the bank who are trying to divert your money into their private account.
The Citibank of London shall pay you $9.2m dollars without delay and the wiring memorandum of remittance shall be forwarded to you upon receipt of the banking details of yours for the transfer.
Contact person name:John Anthony
Email:johnanthony684@gmail.com
 
The payment approval officer (Citibank) London shall secure every approval and instruct the bank to credit your account once your full bank information / house address, phone number and your identity is forwarded to her.
 
Note: your payment has already been approved; please do contact her right now so that she would proceed with your payment process.
We implore you get back to this office after you establish contact with her to enable us investigate and make sure your payment gets to you. Thanks and hope to read from you soon.
Mr. Kevin Cassidy
Assistant chief executive.
Team of financial auditors
United Nations financial operations.

Anti-fraud resources: