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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: "EFCC" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <stopcrime_efcc@qq.com>
Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 04:37:27 -0800
Subject: IMMEDIATE PAYMENT FOR SCAM VICTIMS

Economic And Financial
Crime Commission(EFCC)
15 Awolowo Ways Victoria
Island Lagos Nigeria
Dated: 29/10/2013
                              
                             SCAM VICTIMS PAYMENT UNIT
Attention: To whom is Concern,
I am Ibrahim Lamorde the Chairman of ECONOMICAL FINANCIAL CRIME COMMISSION (EFCC) EFCC in alliance with economic community of West African states (ECOWAS) with head Office here in Nigeria. We have been working towards the eradication exercise of fraudsters and scam Artists in Western part of Africa.With the help of United States Government and the United Nations we have been able to tracked down so many of this scam artist in various parts of West African countries  which includes (NIGERIA, REPUBLIC OF BENIN, TOGO, GHANA CAMEROUN AND SENEGAL LONDON) and they are all in our custody here in Lagos Nigeria.
We have also been able to recover so much money from these scam artists, as Agent Anthony. The United Nation Anti-crime commission and the United State Government have ordered that the money recovered from these Scammers should be shared among the list that we assumed suffered similar fate in the hands of those imposters.
 
This message is been directed to you because your email address was found in one of the scam Artists file and computer hard disk in our custody here in Nigeria.
 
You are therefore to be compensated with $500,000.00 (Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) Consequent to the record we have here, this Scam Artists has defrauded a lot of money from your hard earned currencies, as they claims Diplomat/Bank officials, Lottery Agents who has money for transfer or want you to be the next of kin of such funds which do not really exist.
 
 
You are therefore to confirm the receipt of this email, for onward directive.
Yours sincerely,
Ibrahim Lamorde
Chairman
Economic And Financial
Crime Commission(EFCC)

Anti-fraud resources: