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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: "Mr. Martins Bello" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <martinsbello@outlook.com>
Date: Mon, 2 Oct 2017 00:03:07 -0700
Subject: REPLY URGENTLY

Attn: Please,
 
Pardon me for not having the pleasure of knowing your mindset before making you this offer and it is utterly confidential and genuine by virtue of its nature. I write to solicit your cooperation in allowing this sum US$20M be received into your account for our mutual benefits.
 
This fund was stashed out from the funds we recovered during our auditing with African Banks last year. So far, I have already submitted an approved end of the year report to the World Bank and United Nations and I have since then, placed this amount on a Non-Investment Account without a beneficiary with UBA waiting for this time when the UBA will be having their International pay out bills.
 
And I seek your partnership to humbly and sincerely work with me have this fund received into your account for our mutual benefits. Upon your response, I will make arrangement with an insider of the Bank to configure your name on the Central Computer database under better arrangement as the holder of the Non-Investment Account and I will then guide you on how to apply for the Account Closure/ bank-to-bank remittance of the funds to your designated bank account.
 
I will stop here until i hear from you.
 
Regards,
Mr. Martins Bello.

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