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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: "Lukman Abel" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <lukmanabel.zenith@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Jun 2015 16:51:32 +0100
Subject: Your Payment New Arrangement

Attn:Sir/Ma
 
I am (Mr.Lukman Abel) the assistant foreign operations director of Zenith Bank Plc. My boss, the director of foreign operations went for One (1) month leave and all power has been vested on me to handle foreign payments. Also due to reported cases of corrupt practices in other Nigeria Banks including apex of our country, the federal government has revoked foreign operations license of other commercial banks and has appointed our bank to make all foreign payments on behalf of the federal government of Nigeria. Be informed that the federal government has re- approved your payment of Five Two Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars (US$2,500,000.00) and as you are aware this fund has been in our bank for almost two (2) years unclaimed because the director of foreign operations refused to tell you the truth on how to claim your fund and the reason is that he has been using the monthly interest accumulated from your fund to enrich himself.
 
But with the power vested on me, I will help you transfer the fund to your bank account by using the easiest and quickest method. By this method, you will open a domiciliary account with our bank and your fund will be lodged into the domiciliary account for onward direct transfer to any bank of your choice. Once the transfer is done, you will confirm the fund in your bank account within 8-10 hours of the same day. No Cost of Transfer and no form of stop order from any government parastatals as the transfer will be done within our bank alone and it is very safe method of payment. The methods of payments introduced to you before always end up with a stop order from any of the government parastatals and thereby asking you to pay huge amount of fee and which will be difficult for you to pay. While such methods is not safe for you is because it is not done within our bank alone as information of your fund payment will be sent to the Central Control Unit of
the Federal Ministry of Finance and also office of the Accountant General of the Federation.
 
Get this paragraph clear; I have nothing to gain by keeping your fund and it is my wish to assist you to receive your fund before my boss returns to office. I will make more details known to you upon receipt of your response.
 
Yours sincerely,
 
Mr.Lukman Abel
Assistant Director
Foreign Operations
Zenith Bank Plc

Anti-fraud resources: