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: "Mr.Ahmed Idris" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <ahmedidris384@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2018 01:49:07 -0700
Subject: Re:Your Inheritance Payment

 
 
Attention :Beneficiary
 
 
 
                          Re:Your Inheritance Payment
 
This is to inform you that President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the new finance Minister to immediately pay all foreign contractors/inheritance debt through the office of the Accountant General of the federation.
 
The President sacked the former finance Minister because of her refusal to pay foreign contractors/inheritance debt as directed by the President but rather choose to be demanding bribe from them.
 
You are hereby advice by this directive to send your full information along with direct phone number,a copy of your identification together with contract/inheritance amount to this office within the next 2 working days to enable us to effect the payment of your fund to you and kindly note that the approved payment method is through bank to bank wire transfer, ATM MASTER CARD OR BY DIPLOMATIC DELIVERY DOWN TO YOU.
 
 
We will appreciate your anticipated cooperation in this matter.
 
Warm Regards,
 
Mr.Ahmed Idris
Accountant General
Federal Republic of Nigeria

Anti-fraud resources: