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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: rev.fatherpaulwilliams@outlook.com
Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 11:34:18 +0100
Subject: Be blessed as we wait for your urgent reply

Greetings to you,

I am Rev. Father Paul Williams, a senior staff with the
World Bank fact finding & special duties office. I am
writing you this letter because cool penny is better than
million of dollars. It is better for one to live and die
poor honest man than a rich dishonest one. The Chief
security officer (CSO) of this organization and I have
arranged with an officer in computer section, engineer Peter
Cliff has agreed to bring out part of your total sum
amounting to US$15 Million, why we did this is because
according to information gathered from the banks/security
computer, you have been waiting for a long time to receive
your money without success. As I found out that you have
almost met all the statutory requirements in respect of your
fund settlement. Your problem is that of interest groups. A
lot of people are interested in your payment and those
people are merely doing papers works with you and that is
why you receive messages from different people every day.

Also we found out that some of the officials of the
parasites have been extorting a lot of money from you with
the pretext of helping you to receive your money. I can
assure you that this may last for years yet nothing happens,
if you do not do away with those officers you call your
partners, and for security reasons. Do not tell anybody that
you have your money until you receive cash at your
doorstep.The money is in two security proof boxes weighing
110kg each, which is 220kg for the two boxes. We went to
four courier companies to make arrangements on how to ship
them by courier to you, we went to DHL, FEDEX, IAS, UPS, and
all said that they must open the boxes for inspection by the
customs before shipment.

This is something we want to avoid because the boxes were
padded with synthetic nylon and to open them you have to cut
the pad before you will meet the buttons that you will press
to open the dial code-lock. There is no way you can open the
boxes and be able to close them again because they were
padded with machine. We told the courier services that the
boxes contained film materials and when open will spoil the
materials. We did not declare money because couriers do not
carry money. Today a friend of mine who is diplomat
disclosed to me that there is courier service they use to
send diplomatic material and information from one country to
another. It has diplomatic immunity and cannot check by any
customs any where in the World. The name of the courier
service is Diplomatic courier Service company (Dipcsco) I
will meet them as soon as I have your go ahead order.

The Diplomat will help me to get immunity papers, so we do
not have any problem. We have concluded that you must
compensate us with five hundred thousand United States
Dollars (US$500.000.00)as soon as you receive your money to
this effect, you will send to us a promissory note for five
hundred thousand united States Dollars (US$500.000.00) along
with your identification and address for sending the boxes
by courier, Please maintain top most secrecy as it may cause
a lot of problem if found out that we are using this way to
help you. Do not ever tell anybody about this until you have
your money. I want to help you because something in me is
telling me that you are an honest person when we concluded
this and you send our promise. We will help to ship the
final part of your money to you.

Yours faithfully,
Rt. Rev. Father Paul Williams
Chairman, Fact-Finding & Special Duties Office

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