joewein.net   joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days
  jwSpamSpy

Home
About Us
Spam
419/Nigeria
Fraud
Contact

"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 Richard Momoh" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <office773@163.com>
Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2014 16:25:41 -0500
Subject: YOUR INHERITANCE / CONTRACT PAYMENT NOTIFICATION : REPLY IMMEDIATELY

ZENITH BANK OF NIGERIA
LAGOS, NIGERIA.
 
Attn : Beneficiary,
I write to inform you that we are now making payments to all our customers who has been unable to receive their payment all these past years and you are among those for these payment. According to my file here your outstanding payment is $25 million and the reason for this delay is because of the malpractices we discovered among our staffs who were handling your payment. In this reason we decided to put on hold your payment till the impostors were arrested who were collecting money from people wrongly. I am now the new Director of foreign payment and I want you to submit to me for screening and payment of your fund. The following are needed and after thorough screening we will send you a MASTER CARD ATM covering all your payment.
 
1. Your Name
2. Address
3. Phone number where you can be reached
4. Age
5. Marriage status
6. Occupation
7. Your drivers licence or international passport (scanned copy only)
 
Send to me immoderately so that your file will be screened and your payment sent to you.Please note that you have only 2 weeks from now to conclude your payment. You can reach me on any of these email addresses : office771_1@163.com , office771_2@163.com
 
Thank you.
Mr Richard Momoh
For: Zenith bank of Nigeria

Anti-fraud resources: