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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: "Mr. Kenneth Robertson" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrkennethone@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2017 10:27:52 -0800
Subject: Your delayed payment is ready

International Monetary Fund
Dept of Fund Transfer Monitoring Team
Pretoria South Africa
Our Ref: IMF/FCA7-02U

Good day,

We wish to congratulate and inform you that after thorough review of all unclaimed Contract, Inheritance, Lottery funds, etc in conjunction with the World Bank and the United Nations auditors report, your payment file was forwarded to our office for review and immediate payment of your long delayed funds starting with a first installment transfer of $985,500.00 USD to your bank account.

The Audit report shows that you have been going through hard times trying to get your money transferred to you due to your dealings with dubious officials who are using your funds to trade at the international market.

It has come to our understanding that most people are not aware that they have funds approved to them thereby giving the dubious directors and officials the opportunity to be trading with their funds. We therefore advice that you stop further communication with any office or person outside this office because until we complete the process and instruct the paying bank to immediately pay out your approved sum to you.

This first installment transfer of $985,500.00 USD will be credited to your submitted bank account within 3 working days and telex confirmation forwarded to you and your bankers for confirmation. For further details and the immediate transfer of the $985,500.00 USD to your bank account, kindly send your current telephone number immediately for immediate processing of your fund transfer.

Once again Congratulations.

Yours faithfully,
Mr. Kenneth Robertson
Fund Transfer Monitoring Team

Anti-fraud resources: