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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: Francis <francis3@managementoffice.id.vg>
Reply-To: <francis202@yeah.net>
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2016 01:54:09 +0100
Subject: Your (US$7,800,000.00)

Hi,
We would like to bring your attention to the following updates. The Office of the Auditor-General for the Federation conducted an audit on the West African government account recently. And During our recent audit, the total sum of (US$7,800,000.00) were discovered which has been approved in your favor but still unclaimed; We were meant to understand from our findings that you have been going through hard ways by paying a lot of charges to see the release of your funds which has been the handwork of some miscreant elements from this country. We certainly do apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused. It is my pleasure to inform you that we have processed your payment and you will be receiving $10,000 on daily basis both through Western Union and MoneyGram as soon as you paid the payment processing fee of ($125). All you need to be receiving your payment both through Western Union and MoneyGram is processing fee of $125 which is a laid down procedure in the financial institution for a situation like this and it is a basic requirement for you to successfully claim the funds. In order to help us serve you better and expeditiously, you are requested to send this $125 through MoneyGram to our legal department on a reasonable time.
Receiver's name: JOHN MMABIA
City: PORTO NOVO
Country: BENIN REPUBLIC
As an insider in this Financial Institution, I can assure you that once you have provided to the Bank with their demands, you will instantly qualified to be receiving $10,000 both from Western Union and MoneyGram on daily basis.

Sincerely,
Francis EGOYIBO
Office of the Accountant General of the Federation
Tel +234 9081 09 8889

Anti-fraud resources: