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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: "Christine Lagarde(IMF DIRECTOR)" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <officedcfbi@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2018 05:53:29 -0700
Subject: REDEEM YOUR IMF/UN APPROVED FUND OF $10.3M

International Monetary Fund,
700 19th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20431
 
Attention Beneficiary,
 
This message is to inform you that you have an overdue payment of $10.3M in the federal reserve bank, USA. This was as a result of winning excercise usually conducted by the United Nation every year. This exercise was conducted by a random email selection and you happen to be among the lucky beneficiaries to benefit from the exercise this year. We try as much as possible to keep a low profile on this to avoid any hoax because there are a lot of impostors and impersonators jeopardising the good intent of this winning exercise.
 
You are to contact Mr. Jerome H. Powell who happens to be a member of the federal reserve board via the email address below.
 
E-mail: jerome.h.powell@aol.com
website: www.federalreserve.gov
 
NB: Please kindly report any suspected scam/fraud email or ongoing transaction to this office immediately for investigation and verification.
 
Regards,
Christine Lagarde (Director)
International Monetary Fund
Head Department Washington D.C.© 2018

Anti-fraud resources: