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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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Mr. Walzer Brownz" (may be fake)
Date: Fri, 25 Oct 2013 13:22:09 +0100
Subject: BANK ALERT INFO NEEDED URGENTLY

ATTN,


How are you doing? Well this is to let you know that we commercial bank Ghana Management has today concluded loading your funds USD$10.5Million into your online system and will be transfer it to your account as soon as we receive this following information below, so we need all this information from you just to enable us know where we are transferring it to for avoid the transfer problem.

Need this information as soon as possible.

1} Your full name/address
2} A copy of your identification
3} Your direct telephone number where we can get you when needed

Again, we will immediately commence with the transferring as soon as we receive this information because this money is ready as we communicate with you through this media and we need to start sending it to your account as soon as possible just as we have said, so try to be a little fast in sending all this information to us while you feel free to call us on phone as soon as you are less busy.

Regards,

Mr. Walzer Brownz.
Director, Online Unit transfer
COMMERCIAL BANK INTERNATIONAL

Anti-fraud resources: