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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: "Office Contact" <office1@gmail.com>
Reply-To: contact@enerstandcosolicitors.com
Date: 05 Apr 2020 07:07:10 +0200
Subject: RE: IMPORTANT NOTIFICATION DON'T IGNORE!!!

IMPORTANT NOTIFICATION DON'T IGNORE!!!

Dear beneficiary,

We write on behalf of our clients, Powerball Office of the
Security and Exchange Commission, Department of Unclaimed Funds.
We are tasked to verify the identity of the owner of the fund and
to confirm the payment of the unused funds. The fund was not
claimed and later invested in the capital market was managed by
an investment company over three years (09/03/2017). The capital
together with the investment success accumulated up to that point
is ($3,998,880.40). Three million nine hundred eighty-two and
eighty thousand eight hundred eighty and eighty cents.

The original sum of ($1,615,810.00) was awarded a million six
hundred and fifteen thousand eight hundred and ten dollar after a
coupon with your email address attached appeared with the winning
lot number: BXT / K231 reference number: BECT213H, the coupons
were purchased from google play store, which collects and bets on
email from around the world to increase their chances of winning.
A letter of notification was sent to you shortly after your email
emerged as winners, but you have not completed the fund
application process. The money was therefore released to the
olive oil investment company, which invested them in profitable
shares for a period of two years. The money should be released to
you after the first investment period, but since there were so
many complications with the address of the winners, some
notification letters were likely sent to the wrong addresses.
This led to some false requests for money from some unscrupulous
individuals, in response to this problem, Powerball Office of the
Security and Exchange Commission, Department of Unclaimed Funds
ordered the money in the Department for Unclaimed Funds until
Completion of an investigation to identify the true owners of the
fund. To ensure that the legal process when paying the money to
the actual beneficiary, the Commission has commissioned our law
firm to act as a legal advisor in processing for advice on how to
make your claim.

In addition, your interest in the processing and payment of this
money to you must be before end of December 2020 or the money
will be reinvested automatically after that date.

Regard,
Dr. Richardo Fontana
RICHARDO LAW CHAMBER
Tel:+1 4045966532

Anti-fraud resources: