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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 M. Abbate" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <paul.m.abbate@daum.net>
Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2021 16:41:01 -0700
Subject: Re: FROM THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION (FBI).

                                                                   Federal Bureau of Investigation
                                                   Field Intelligence Groups J. Edgar Hoover Building
                                              935 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20535, USA
 
 
Attention: Beneficiary,
 
We sincerely apologized for sending you this sensitive information via e-mail instead of a certified mail, post-mail, phone, or face to face conversation, it's due to the urgency and importance of the security information of our citizens, I am deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Paul M. Abbate, we intercepted and seized a sealed envelope at the John F Kennedy International Airport, New York, NY 11430 coming from a foreign country. We scanned the sealed envelope's content and found it contained a total sum of 4.1 million dollars value certified payment bond. Also, the sealed envelope had documents with your name on them as the receiver of the package. We question the diplomat that accompanied the sealed envelope into the United States, and we learned that he was to deliver this sealed envelope to your residence as payment of an inheritance / winning prize payment due and owed to you.
 
The envelope paperwork lacks the PROOF OF OWNERSHIP CERTIFICATE AND LEGAL DELIVERY PERMIT CLEARANCE CERTIFICATE form, we have confiscated the envelope, released the Diplomat and you are required to reply to this email ( paul.m.abbate@daum.net ) within 72 hours at that point I will walk you through the process of clearing and claiming the money, failure to comply may lead to your arrest, interrogation and,/or you being prosecuted in the Court of Law for tax evasion and/or money laundering, also you are instructed to desist from further contact with any bank(s) or person(s) in the United States or the United Kingdom or any part of the world regarding your fund because your payment has been confiscated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation here in the United States.
 
Yours In Service,
Paul M. Abbate
Deputy Director of the FBI

Anti-fraud resources: