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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: Federal Bureau of investigation <josei@fbi.ogr>
Reply-To: josevinals@seznam.cz
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2019 23:26:08 +0300
Subject: Attn Recipient



--
Our Ref: FBI /0N8/CONTRACT NO.856.
Motto: Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity

Attn Recipient:


This is agent Joseph, we were sent by the current Director of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (Christopher A. Wray), who assumed the
role on September 2, 2019, We are here in Africa as an FBI/ United
States
delegate that have been delegated to investigate these fraudsters who
are in the business of swindling Foreigners that has transactions in
Africa.

Please be informed that during our investigations we found out that
there is a total amount of $2.5 Million that has been assigned in your
name as the beneficiary and these fraudsters are busy swindling you
without any hope of receiving your fund, these are the works of the
fraudsters who needed to extort money from you in the name of this
transfer, We have to inform you that we have arrested some men in
respect of this delayed over due fund. I have a very limited time to
stay in Africa here so I advise you urgently respond to this message.

These criminals will be caught unaware and we don't want them to know
this new development to avoid jeopardizing our investigation, you need
to conceal anything that has to do with this exercise to enable us get
all the necessary information we required.

I shall be expecting your swift response as soon as you receive this
email and notify us of any message or phone call you receive from those
fraudsters for us to investigate on it before you make any contact with
them.

Please reconfirm your information below
Full Name:
Address:
Phone Number:

In case if found this message in spam folder, it could be due to your
Internet Service Provider, ISP. So kindly move to your inbox before
replying.

Regards.
JOSEPH VINTEX (FBI)
Cyber Crime Division

Anti-fraud resources: