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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: "Paul Beade" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <pabeade59@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 26 Apr 2020 07:42:08 -0700
Subject: RE: INSTRUCTIONS TO CREDIT YOUR ACCOUNT WITH US$7,874,303.00?

United Nations International Compensation Fund (UNICF)?
Fraud Victims Assessement Department?
Palais des Nations,
1211 Genève,
Switzerland?
?
?
?
Dear Beneficiary
?
?
RE: INSTRUCTIONS TO CREDIT YOUR ACCOUNT WITH US$7,874,303.00?
?
?
We wish congratulate and inform you that after thorough review of your pending funds transfer release documents by the?
United Nations Regional Head Quarters Geneva; and the International Monetary Fund Assessment Unit, your payment file?
has been forwarded to us and the total sum of US$7,874,303.00 released to us for payment to you as compensation. This is part of the money recovered from countries where fraudulent emails emanate the most and hence released as compsensation fund for all fraud victims as these countries were sanctioned by the United Nations and made to pay indemnity fund to the victims who have lost millions of dollars to internet fraudsters in there territories.?
?
Intelligence report received from international law enforcement agencies including the FBI shows you have been engaged in varIous fraud schemes mainly from Africa and Europe, with a few from the Asian region. We cannot tell how much you have lost in total to these fraud schemes but the International Criminal Justice Department filed a complain/suit against these nations and it was agreed upon unanimously to compensate you and other victims of the advance fee fraud.?
?
Hence you have been approved and cleared for payment, as The Audit reports given to us shows that you have been going through hard times paying a lot of money to these fraudsters to see to the release of your promised funds. We therefore advice that you stop further communications with any correspondence outside this office since you do not have to pay any money or fee to receive your funds as you have met all of the funds transfer requirements. The only thing required of you is to obtain the (Non-Residential Tax Clearance Form) from the Financial Service Authority (FSA) to enable us credit your account by telegraphic transfer through our official payment bank in Switzerland.?
?
You may assign an attorney or representative to assist you with the claims process if you are not familiar with internationals claims process.?
?
For further details and assistance on this Remittance Notification, kindly confirm your FULL NAME, CONTACT ADDRESS and TELEPHONE NUMBERS to me.?
?
?
?
Yours sincerely,?
Paul Beade
Head, Fraud Victims Assessement Department (UNICF)?

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