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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: "FBI DIRECTOR" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <fbidirecctor@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2014 14:12:56 -0700
Subject: REF: YOUR PAYMENT IS ON THE WAY!.

FBI Headquarters
#935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington DC
FBI/EC/SID/0067/014.

REF: YOUR PAYMENT IS ON THE WAY!.

We write this legal notice to officially inform you that Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in group efforts with the United States Homeland Security and Interpol commission has intercepted funds transfer in which your name featured prominently as the rightful beneficiary.

In view of the above, it came to our notice that the sum of US$10,500,000.00 was transferred in your FAVOR as the beneficiary for final crediting into your personal bank account. The banks in Africa, Asia and Europe knowing full well that they do not have enough facilities to effect this payment through their corresponding banks used what we known as a “secret diplomatic transit payment” (S.D.T.P) to wire this fund to enable them achieve final crediting into your personal bank account.

Secret diplomatic wire transfers are funds often relating to terrorist and drug sponsoring. Why must your payment be made in secret transfer if your transaction is legitimate? If you are not a terrorist or drug dealer, then why did you not receive the money directly into your bank account? This is purely 100% illegal method of transferring funds which from our previous experiences have always been related to terrorist and drug activities. We do not want you to get into enormous trouble as soon as these funds reflect in your bank account, so it is our duty as a worldwide security commission to correct this little problem to allow your funds finally go into your bank account as initiated.

>From our investigations, you are a genuine beneficiary of the funds, we hereby urge you to adhere to our instructions to receive your payment as soon as possible. We advice you contact this commission immediately, as your funds has been placed on hold here in a top bank herein United States based on the order of the FBI until you can provide us with a Diplomatic Immunity Seal of Transfer (DIST) Clearance certificate (within 3 days) to fully regularize the transfer and certify that the funds you are about to receive is terrorist, drug and crimes FREE so that we shall instruct the immediate release of the funds into your account for your personal use.

You are to forward the DIST document to us immediately if you have it in your possession. But if you don’t have it, kindly let us know so that we can direct you to the particular government agency that issues this document because we have come to realize that the funds were authorized by the bank that initialized the transfer. So, we need your immediate response to this message and cooperation to enable us resolves this matter amicable with your funds immediately release to you without any further delay.

Regards,
James B. Comey, Jr.
Director, FBI
J. Edgar Hoover building
935 Pennsylvania Av,
NW Washington D.C.20535-0001.


===============================================================

WARNING: This E-mail and any of its attachments may contain FBI proprietary information, which is privileged, confidential, or subject to copyright belonging to FBI. This E-mail is intended solely for the use of the individual (YOU) to whom it is addressed. You are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, copying, or action taken in relation to the contents of and attachments to this E-mail is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful.

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