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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: "UNITED NATIONS" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <peter.launsky_t@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Sun, 1 Jun 2014 19:16:51 -0400
Subject: CONFIRM BENEFICIARY DETAILS

The Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Bank Ki-Moon and the Decision Making Body, the Executive Arm of the Organization, issued a directive to the Director-United Nations Department of Legal Affairs, Security and Investigation in the United Kingdom to investigate funds and to make sure that we approve all outstanding debts owed to local and overseas beneficiaries by United Nation Member States in the 2nd quarter of this 2014 Fiscal Year

This decision was taken based on the inability of the banks in United Kingdom to release funds to beneficiaries due to the findings that some Directors in the bank were diverting foreign beneficiaries’ payment to another account of their choice overseas. In view of this, during our investigation it was found out that an account was submitted for your fund to be paid into a German Bank.
Below is the account submitted. Kindly confirm if you are aware of the recent developments before payment is made.

BENEFICIARY: Sabrina Kristen Becker
BANK: Frankfurter Bank
A/C NO.: 367840544
CODE: 50040201

Finally, be informed that a payment instruction had been issued and forwarded to the Treasury Department of the Government in favor of you, for immediate release of your fund to the above-stated account without any further prejudice. We cannot approve the fund transfer to the account without a confirmation from you stating a change of beneficiary account to the above-stated account.

Kindly contact me to confirm if you issued an instruction for the fund to be transferred to the above stated account today.

You are expected to respond to this email within 24hours for confirmation. The fund will be wired to the aforestated account if you fail to contact this office after 24hours of receiving this email.
I await your speedy response.

Thanks for your co-operation.

Yours faithfully
Mr. Peter Launsky



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