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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: "Mt John Shaw" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <johnshaw@accountant.com>
Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2015 02:13:25 -0400
Subject: Account Department (UK)

Ref: Payment Advice.

We received an instruction from our correspondence bank agent Santander UK Online Bank Plc United Kingdom
to process and release your part payment of $15.500,000.00 (Fifteen Million Five Hundred Thousand United
State Dollars into your firm account.

But we are surprised when we are about to process your claim with our paying bank, we received another
email from Ms Diane L. Mcallister who claim to be your representative and forward to us the following
account information for us to transfer the fund into her account.

The account which she forwarded to us are as follows.

Bank of America
St. Petersburg, Florida, USA
Diane L. Mcallister
Account# 003767127294
Routing # 063100277

Do reconfirm to us as a matter of urgency if this lady is from you and has your authority to receive your fund,
if not then kindly reconfirm back us with your banking details as soon as possible for all verification
purpose, include copy of your passport.

However, we shall proceed to issue all payment details to the said Ms.Diane L. Mcallister, if we do not
hear from you within the next 72 hours.

Confirm your receipt of this mail without any delay,

Mr John Shaw
(Account Department)
Off-shore Finance and Clearing House
London United Kingdom

Anti-fraud resources: