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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: "Tracy Jacob & John .G. Walsh" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <infoocc@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Fri, 4 Dec 2015 20:46:17 +0100
Subject: ATTENTION BENEFICIARY

Attention: Beneficiary,

I am writing you with regards to your stalled funds transfer you have
been expecting all these years.
I was specially instructed by the Office of the (Office of Comptroller
of Currency) to embark on a personal review of all long pending and
stalled International Transfer Files of all Banks, including those at
our Offshore Foreign Correspondent Banks in the last government, with a
view of redeeming genuine cases of Transfers, and consigning others as
bad debt.

Therefore this office has mandated me to ensure that all genuine claim
and transfers are paid. The Government took this major step in
addressing these problems of all stalled transfers as a result of the
global financial crisis that has affected banks by establishing the
O.C.C office to take over payment responsibility on behalf of all banks.

Your transfer file came to my attention just this morning, and I was
compelled to take special interest in your transfer because of its
peculiar history of procedural inconsistencies and unauthorized payment
approval documents that are contained in your file. Consequently, I have
this morning ordered the heads of all the relevant Government
Departments genuinely involved in the foreign transfer protocol and the
Bank to suspend all further action on your transfer pending conclusion
of my personal investigation into the actual reasons why your transfer
has failed to date. Official memos have been issued to the relevant
departments.

However, preliminary evidence shows clearly that some fraudulent persons
have taken advantage of your stalled transfer and have been extorting
monies from you through concocted excuses and lies, only for them to
divert the monies collected from you to their private pockets and return
back to demand more monies from you endlessly. Please you should not
allow yourself to be deceived and extorted anymore.

Therefore you are advised in your own interest to desist from making
further contact with anyone or office with regards to your payment. We
have instructed all bank, government offices previously involve of your
payment to stop forthwith and you are ask to stop conversation with them
as well.

Best Regard
Tracy Jacob & John .G. Walsh

Anti-fraud resources: