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: "John Hackett" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <hackett@barid.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 20:05:22 +0100
Subject: Re: Payment transfer advice notification

Attention:

Payment transfer advice notification. We received a mandate to pay you the sum of US$10,500,000.00 (Ten Million Five Hundred Thousand US Dollars) from United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) in conjuction International Monetary Fund (IMF) and HSBC Bank London with local siftAcks-314D02826300-789700142, 11:26:21 GMT +1000 to carry out a direct swift transfer of your entire contract / Inheritance compensation sum. For Press Releases visit this website: http://www.uncc.ch/pressrel.htm

Your new Payment Reference No. FERES9ASWIFT/USD, Allocation No: 67487632 Password No: 33988331, Pin Code No: 55674 and your Certificate of Merit Payment No: 103, Released Code No:0763; Immediate Telex confirmation No: 44133CITBKLN; Secret Code No: XXTN04413. Having received these vital payment information.

You advise to send your full names telephone number and bank details for immediate payment. Note that this message is urgent and should be treated on dispatch because of the valid date on the transfer instruction.

Best regards,

John B. Hackett

Anti-fraud resources: