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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.Mohammed Waziri" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mohammedwaziri001@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 25 Jan 2014 17:29:51 -0800
Subject: Re: Wire Payment Into Your bank Account.

From office of the Federal Ministry of Finance,Nigeria.

Re: Attn: Beneficiary,

Re: Payment Wire into Your bank Account.
I am Secretary to the Minister of Finance and Director of currency Mrs.Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
Federal Ministry of Finance,Nigeria is sending this notice to you to verify and confirm from you if you are the person who authorized or instructed somebody in Nigeria(name withheld) who is prompting or working as your Attorney, to change your account information on your behalf. The said officer confirmed to us that you are now dead and that is his reason to change the name and account information of the beneficiary. This Development is coming now that the Federal Government of Nigeria has made provision to pay all over due payment without any encumbrances.The Federal Government of Nigeria have approved a flat payment of USD8million as part payment to all fund beneficiaries which you happens to be among.
The Bank account information given to us by the said person is stated as follows:

FIRST METROPOLITAN CREDIT UNION
1870 ADOBE STREET,
CONCORD CALIFORNIA 94520
A/C NO: 355585-90
ROUTING NO: 311749560
A/C NAME: ACE PRINTING COMPANY.

We need to reconfirm if the above information is really from you in order to avoid any mistake in making your payment.
If it is really true, please we want you to contact us immediately to enable us effect your payment immediately.
If we did not hear from you, it automatically means that you are actually dead and the information passed to us is correct.
Looking forward to your urgent response.

Best Regards,
Mr.Mohammed Waziri
Secretary to the Minister of Finance.

Anti-fraud resources: