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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: "Eriq Potts" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <tanakamoyo328@yahoo.co.za>
Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2014 16:32:18 +0100
Subject: Re: Thanks for your response

Dear Friend am Eriq Potts ,

I write to inform you that the President of the Republic of South Africa, Mr. Jacob Zuma through his Minister of Finance, Mr. Pravin Gordhan, has ordered the immediate release and transfer of funds withheld from foreign contractors, suppliers, inheritors and beneficiaries by the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and other parastatals as part of his Economic Reconciliation Agenda submitted to the G8 Summit.

To this regard, I, Mr. Eriq Potts of the Internal Audit Department of First National Bank request that you reconfirm to me your receiving banking details for the transfer of an outstanding and dormant sum of $7,900.000.00 which was withheld and have been in our suspense account due to tax and certification reasons and is now cleared for transfer to you via the First National Bank of South Africa (FNB).

I want to put you forward as one of our foreign suppliers thereby securing release of the funds to any account you will nominate. It will take my office 72 Hours to certify the funds transfer to your nominated bank account and a SWIFT Confirmation message of the transfer shall be sent to you by email attachment or fax to confirm availability of funds in your account. Alternatively the fund can be loaded in an Automated Teller Machine Debit Card ATM.

Between us, we shall split the fund 50% for you and 50% for me upon successful transfer. Kindly reconfirm the below details for me to start processing. The transfer is 100% risk-free and will be via bank-to-bank to avoid any breach of monetary policies in your country or mine.

Full Names:……………………………………………………………
Full Contact Address:……………………………………………….
Telephone Number:…………………………….........Fax:……………………
Occupation:…………………………………………………………
Date of Birth:………………………………………………………
Identification document (Please attach)………......Passport or Drivers license.All these that you have to forward to my private email address below

Looking forward to meeting you soon!!!

Eriq Potts( MBA-LON)
(Internal Audit Department)
First National Bank (FNB)
1 First Place, Bank City, Johannesburg 2014
TEL: 0027-307-228-338
FAX: +27-865 369 750
tanakamoyo328@yahoo.co.za

Anti-fraud resources: