joewein.net   joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days
  jwSpamSpy

Home
About Us
Spam
419/Nigeria
Fraud
Contact

"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: "Dr Horst Koehler" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <jr67641@yahoo.es>
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 2016 06:46:36 +0100
Subject: final release of funds

Dear Sir/Madam,

As the former IMF Managing Director and the current EU Minister of Foreign Affairs, i deemed it necessary to supersede the success of pending payments for economic growth. I have officially authorized the final release of funds to outstanding payment beneficiaries and your approved amount is currently at the escrow department of the international paying bank, which must be credited into your bank account upon receipt of your current operative bank account coordinates.

Your payment is irreversible at this time because the beneficiaries that responded to this message are now celebrating their 100% achieved success, for remittance authentication advice you must reply directly to email: rym598l@gmail.com

Congratulations,

Dr. Horst Köhler
EU Minister of Foreign Affairs
President of Germany from 2004 to 2010.
Managing Director, IMF (May 2000-March 2004)
Email: HorstK@legislator.com
Skype: korstkh9

Anti-fraud resources: