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: "Federal Bureau Of Investigation" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <agent.jamesbuton.fbi04@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 07:51:40 +0100
Subject: RED ALERT ON YOUR PAYMENT AS FBI NEED SOLID PROOF FROM YOU REPLY

 
Anti-Terrorist and Monetary Crimes Division
FBI Headquarters In Washington, D.C.
Federal Bureau Of Investigation
J. Edgar Hoover Building 935 Pennsylvania Avenue,
NW Washington, D.C. 20535-0001 )
 
FBI ALERT:
 
This is an official advice from the FBI foreign Remittance/telegraphic dept., it has come to our notice that the Central Bank of Nigeria {CBN} district has released 10,500,000.00 US Dollars into Bank of America in your name as the rightful beneficiary of the said fund.The CBN knowing fully well that they do not have Enough facilities to effect this payment from the united kingdom to your account,they used what we know as a secret diplomatic transit payment (s.t.d.p) to pay this fund through wire transfer into your local acount.
 
They are still waiting for confirmation from you on the already Transferred funds which were made in direct transfer so that they can do final crediting to your account. Secret diplomatic payments are not made unless the funds are related to terrorist activities why must your payment be made in secret transfer?. If your transaction is legitimate, if you are not a terrorist, then why did you not receive the money directly into your account? this is a pure coded means of payment
Records which we have had with this method of payment in the past and it related to terrorist acts. We do not want you to get into trouble as soon as these funds reflect in your account, so it is our duty as a world wide commission to correct this little problem before this funds will be credited into your account. Due to the increase difficulty and unnecessary security by the American authorities when funds come from outside of Europe and the Middle East, the FBI bank commission for Europe has stopped the transfer on its way to deliver payment of $10,500,000.00 to debit your reserve account and pay you through a secured diplomatic transit account (s.d.t.a). We govern and oversee funds transfer for the World Bank and the rest of the world.
 
We adviced you to contact us immediately as the funds have been Stopped and are being held in our custody until you can be able to provide us with the diplomatic immunity seal of transfer (D.I.S.T) within 5 days from the world local bank that authorized the transfer to certify that the funds that you are about to receive from Nigeria are anti-terrorist/drug free or we shall have cause to cross and impound the Payment, we shall release the fund immediately we receive this legal documents.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
We have decided to contact you directly to acquire the proper Verifications and proof from you to show that you are the rightful person to receive this approved fund because of the amount involved. We want to make sure is a clean and legal money you are about to receive. Be informed that the fund are now in United State in your name, but right now we have ordered the bank not to release the fund to anybody that comes to them unless we ask them to do so because we have to carry out our investigations first before releasing the fund to you.
 
In this regards, you are to re-assure and proof to us that what you are about to receive is a clean money by sending to us FBI Identification Record and also Diplomatic Immunity Seal Of Transfer(DIST) to satisfy to us that the money is legitimate and real money. You are to forward the documents to us immediately if you have it in your possession, but if you don't have it let us know so that we will direct you where to obtain the documents and send to us so that we will ask the holding bank to go ahead Crediting your account immediately. The Documents are to be issued to you from the World Local Bank that Authorized the transfer so get back to us immediately if you don't have the document while we inform you the particular place to obtain the document. An FBI Identification Record and Diplomatic Immunity Seal Of Transfer (DIST) often referred to as a Criminal History Record or Rap Sheet, is a listing of certain information taken from fingerprint submissions retained by the FB! I in connection with arrests and
Guarantee: funds will be released on confirmation of the document.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Final Instruction;
1. Credit payment instruction: irrevocable credit guarantee.
2. Beneficiary has full power when validation is cleared.
3. Beneficiaries bank in U.S.A., can only release funds.
4. Upon confirmation from the world bank / united nations.
5. Bearers must clear bank protocol and validation request.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
NOTE: We have asked for the above documents to make available the most complete and up-to date records possible for the enhancement of public safety, welfare and security of Society while recognizing the importance of individual privacy rights. If you fail to provide the Documents to us, we will charge you with the FBI and take our proper action against you for not proofing to us the legitimate of the fund you are about to receive.
 
The United States Department of Justice Order 556-73 establishes rules and regulations for the subject of an FBI Identification Record to obtain a copy of his or her own Record for review. The FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division processes these requests to check illegal activities in U.S.A. An individual may request a copy of his or her own FBI Identification Record for personal review or to challenge information on the Record. Other reasons an individual may request a copy of his or her own Identification Record may include international adoption or to satisfy a requirement to live or work in a foreign country or receive funds from another country, i.e. Diplomatic Immunity Seal of Transfer, letter of good conduct, criminal history
Background, etc.)
 
Thanks.
 
James T. Burton
FBI Director Foreign Remittance / Telegraphic Dept,
 

Anti-fraud resources: