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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: "Jerome Powell." (may be fake)
Reply-To: <jeromepowell005@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2018 12:15:49 +0100
Subject: APPROVAL OF FUNDS RELEASE ORDER.(ACT FAST)!!

Dear Beneficiary,
It has come to the notice of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Reserve Bank in Washington, D.C. that  your present inheritance claim application, handled by the Remitting Bank in the U.S.A. is experiencing some irregularities. To this effect, it has become necessary for the Board of Trustees, under our policy act law 187 section(b), to assign trained Fund Transfer Specialists from the United States to resolve and regularize the release of your entitlements with immediate effect.
Our office is fully up to date on how the staff of your designated remitting bank has been taking advantage of you by asking you to pay exorbitant charges which has only made your fund payment a long drawn out process.
Considering this, we have been assigned to step into the processing of your application, to enable your funds to be transferred to you within the shortest possible time. To implement this, you are to get back to us immediately via email  without needing to pay any extra amount.
All processes to have your funds paid to you directly through your local bank have been initiated to cut out unnecessary costs.
I am also very happy to inform you that based on your history, The U.S Government in collaboration with the Federal Reserve Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have compensated you with the grand sum of USD 2.5million.  - We had reason to believe that you had been scammed before, as your name was on the list of previous scam victims.
For further authentification and clarification of whom you are dealing with you should click on the link below...
https://www.federalreserve.gov/aboutthefed/bios/board/powell.htm
Furthermore, our office advises you not to pay any further fees or charges to the any of the remitting banks as they shall no longer be handling your application process.
We shall await your immediate correspondence with your direct telephone numbers to the Chairman's private email address at (jeromepowell005@gmail.com) for re-confirmation and redirections on how to conclude your payment process.
Yours Sincerely,
 
 
Help Desk
Federal Reserve Bank
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Anti-fraud resources: