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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: Elizabeth Gikas <elizabetheuropean12@outlook.com>
Reply-To: <imfeurope002@terra.com.pe>
Date: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 11:08:05 +0000
Subject: URGENT REPLY


CUSTOMER SERVICEREFNO: BMF/75-AO803358FTBatch: 174/05/ZY369My
name is Mrs.Elizabeth Gikas, a letter was forwarded to our office here
in London UK today the 28th of NOV 2014 requesting that your unclaimed
fund be paid to Theresa Morris said letter of change of
beneficiary/ownership to her name, records show that you are among one
of the individuals and organizations who are yet to receive their
overdue payment from overseas which includes those of Lottery, Contract
and Inheritance, Through our Fraud Monitory Unit we have also noticed
that over the past you have been transacting with some impostors and
fraudsters, the Cyber Crime Division of the Homeland Security gathered
information from the Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) formerly
known as the Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) of how some people
have lost outrageous sums of money to these Impostors.In the
said letter of change of beneficiary/ownership, representatives of
Ms.Theresa Morris stated that you are critically infected by Cancer of
the Lungs and that you have some few months to live according to the
doctor's report so therefore that you have given her the authorization
to claim your fund on your behalf and as such your fund should be paid
to her as the next of kin to you to deliver the Consignment to her
Country immediately, you should have contact us by email before you can
direct her to us, Because of the elaborate global scam, we decided to
contact you for confirmation. If after seven working days, no response
is received from you, it will be assumed that you are sick indeed and as
such authorization and approval will be granted on behalf of Theresa
Morris to claim/receive your fund. You are advise to reconfirm
your Information and how you want your fund paid to you without further
delay if you are still alive. Direct your response to my email address:
imfeurope@qip.ru OR imfeurope002@terra.com.pe , urgent response to this. You can also clarificationRegardsMrs.Elizabeth GikasDir. Finance DepartmentEquity Trust F Security Company/ (IMF).Email: imfeurope002@terra.com.pe

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