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: Special Agent Bill James <ad004749@gmail.com>
Reply-To: agentbj47@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2018 07:50:43 +0000
Subject: Attention:Beneficiary,


Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Dept: Anti-Terrorist & Monetary Crimes Division
Office: Washington, D.C. Headquarters
Address: J. Edgar Hoover Building 93 Pennsylvania
Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20535-0001
www.fbi.gov



Attention: Beneficiary,


This email will provide you with the requested information and further
instructions to complete this transaction. My name is Bill James with
the above information, occupation Agent of Special Internet Crime
Division ID # 875354346.I sincerely apologize for sending you this
sensitive information via e-mail instead of a certified mail, phone
call or a face-to-face conversation, I will also send you a certified
email later it is due to the urgency .The Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) Washington, D.C hereby notify you about your
compensation payment of $1 million. The International Monetary Fund
(IMF) and World Bank, instructed us to contact you as body of
intelligent security agency that protect the interest and image of
people. Your email address is listed among those that will benefit and
receive their compensation payment of $1 million dollars through HSBC
Bank, Washington, United States once you send this information, your
full name, address, telephone/ mobile, age and gender, nationality,
occupation.

The International Monetary Fund IMF Anti-Fraud teams in collaboration
with the World Bank are making sure that financial fraud is completely
wiped out. Thousands of email addresses of scammed victims which
include yours have been recovered from the fraudulent officials
arrested. We are contacting you because you are now listed as one of
the bonafide beneficiaries of the IMF / World Bank compensation
payment of 2018 batch A. The IMF with the World bank are making
refunds of $1,000,000.00 each to all whom his or her email address is
listed on the address book of the
recovered fraudulent officials arrested.

Thanks and looking forward to hearing from you.


Yours Faithfully
Special Agent Bill James
ID # 875354346
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

Anti-fraud resources: