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: "Mr. Dolph Bowman" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrsvignhayes@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 12 Mar 2016 14:35:51 +0700
Subject: Atten: Urgent Response Needed

Attention:
 
This is to bring to your attention that THE WORLD BANK ZURICH, SWITZERLAND, Telex Department has Release the sum of $3.5 Million in the FRB (Federal Reserved Bank) United States Of America, Reserved account for the final Crediting of your sum into your domestic account in your country.
 
We wish to draw your attention to contact the FRB (Federal Reserved Bank) United States Of America with there contacts below for final directions on how your sum will be transferred to your account.
 
The beneficiary is therefore given (3) working days to finalize with the FRB (Federal Reserved Bank) USA, or the total sum will be returned back to THE WORLD BANK reserved account, Zurich.
 
Contact Name: Mrs. Virginia Hayes
Bank Email: mrsvignhayes@gmail.com
Bank Tel/Fax: +1 915 229 3490
 
Thanks,
 
Dolph Bowman
World Bank Zurich, Switzerland

Anti-fraud resources: