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: "VERIFIED APPROVED PAYMENTS" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <paymentsunitifc@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 22 Mar 2020 21:42:01 +0200
Subject: RE- YOUR PAYMENT..

Attention: Beneficiary

Your payment is ready for direct wire or cash payment to you. Our Payment Officials were to visit you for proper identification and instant payment release to you but due to current Corona Virus health issues, the visit has been cancelled and your payment will be wired directly to your bank account. You are to pay Wire Transfer Processing Charges of $ 585 only to enable the wire processed and sent to your account.

Contact us urgently, send your account details for your payment wire transfer.

Regards,

Eric Rosengren
Verified Approved Payments Committee
Washington DC USA

Anti-fraud resources: