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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: Walter Frank <walterjfrankjr@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: Walter Frank <walterjfrankjr@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 6 Oct 2014 08:17:02 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: Attention Sir


Attention:

We are investigating a fund remitted from a UK/Africa based bank to your account, with your names on the original papers we received from The UK Financial Intelligence Unit (UKFIU).
Transaction File #: CTUK/ACN1619-10, Transaction Tracer Reference: 60260791392220, SWIFT VALUE: $10,500,000.00 United State Dollars.

Further verification confirmed the above @ 9:15:48 AM, Eastern Standard Time (EST) - 0500 UTC. I am Walter J Frank (Jr), Secretary, Intelligence and Analysis and Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing, and Terrorism Risk Assessment on "1&A" re conceived, Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Lagos-Nigeria.

Be informed that we received a SAR (suspicious activity report) from the UK Financial Intelligence Unit (UKFIU) concerning this transaction. The aforementioned sum of money was remitted to a U.S Company account, with different information in the fund origin papers that was sent to this department.

However, your fund was transferred to a different CHASE BANK account, this is the reason the UK Financial Intelligence Unit (UKFIU) sent us a SAR (suspicious activity report) so that we can further investigate this transaction from this end before releasing the fund to the company account at CHASE BANK.

I thus wish to ask if you authorized this change of account. If yes, kindly send us reply email with your reasons for the change of account, so as to enable us release the fund to the Chase account. And if you did not authorize this change, please quickly respond to this letter,  as we must ensure that this fund goes to the

right person, so we need your support to ensure success during this investigation process. And for safety reasons, you must seize communication with whomsoever you may be communicating with about this transaction, because if you have not authorized this change of account information, then, it is obvious that someone tried to divert your fund, and if so, the Chase Bank account holder would be arrested and prosecuted accordingly.

WARNING:

YOU MUST NOT SPEAK OF THIS INVESTIGATION WITH ANYONE THAT IS INVOLVED WITH YOU IN THIS TRANSACTION, AS NO ONE CAN BE TRUSTED AT THIS TIME, EVEN YOUR PARTNERS OR WHOSOEVER. THE FUND IS HERE FLOATING WITHIN THE BANK UNTIL THE FINAL DESTINATION IS DULY APPROVED.

Your prompt response is highly required.

Yours in service,

Sir.Walter J Frank (Jr)
Investigations
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)
Lagos-Nigeria





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