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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: "Dr. Michele Zaccheo" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <dr.michele_zaccheo@yahoo.pt>
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 22:31:19 +0400
Subject: New Year Information

Attn:

This is to notify you that your funds has been programmed for immediate release into your bank account,
but we cannot transfer this funds direct to your account because we are having problem with the
International Monetary Fund/financial economic meltdown that hit our bank

For this reason Central bank has appointed our apex bank in Asia to complete the swift transfer into your
account, kindly provide us with your current full information to enable us program and move your file to our
apex bank of Asia for urgent communicate and transfer procedure.

I know you will be very much interested, kindly provide me with the details below.

First Name.............
Surname................
Address...............
City........................
State/Province.......
Country..................
Mobile Phone........
Occupation………………

Further details to proceed will be providing once I hear from you.

Yours sincerely,
Dr. Michele Zaccheo

Anti-fraud resources: