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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: "United Nations" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <carmanunited@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Aug 2013 13:08:12 -0400
Subject: From: Ms. Carman L. Lapointe

UNITED NATIONS OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL OVERSIGHT SERVICES
Internal Audit, Monitoring, Consulting and Investigative Division.
 
From: Ms. Carman L. Lapointe
Dear Beneficiary,
This is to inform you of my trip to Nigeria yesterday from London, due to series of complain from the United State Financial Security Services and other Security agencies from Asia, Europe, America and other parts of the world, against the Federal Government of Nigeria and the British Government for the rate of scam activities going on in these two nations. The new strategy this thieves are using now is that they will inform you that your fund is in London UK in a bank that is not existing and start to extort your money again from London, don't listen to them because the origin of your fund is in Africa Nigeria.
 
I want to use this opportunity to notify you that I have forwarded your file to Nigerian Financial Service Authority on Friday last week to contact you for the release of your payment of $2.5M, I was sent down to this country by United Nations Financial Security to make sure that all beneficiaries receive their payment and I have sorted all American beneficiary payment file and forward it to the (NFSA) as directed by Nigerian presidency.
 
Some people here in Africa use my name to extort people claiming that they are Ms Carman Lapointe, Please you have to be very careful with anybody you are dealing with. They will direct you to another office or Bank in UK to contact for your payment while you know that the origin of your funds is from Africa; don't allow them to scam you anymore. The Nigeria Financial Service Authority is the only authority approved by the Federal Government of Nigeria to handle your payment, What I want you to do now is to comply with them because they are only approved office in this country for the payment so you should stop any further communication with any office apart from Nigerian Financial Service Authority.
 
It is very important you reconfirm your full details,  full names, your full address, your direct phone number and your account details So that I can forward to them to immediately open correspondence with you.

Sincerely yours,
Ms. Carman L. Lapointe
United Nations Under-Secretary-
General for Internal Oversight

Anti-fraud resources: