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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: CUSTOMER CARE CENTER <payymenttddepartmenntwu2018@gmail.com>
Reply-To: customercarecobankbenin@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2023 01:12:53 -0700
Subject: ATTENTION FROM BANK

Attention Dear Valued Beneficiary,

This is to inform you officially that we have verified your payment
file and found out the reason you have not received your payment is
because you have not fulfilled the obligations given to you in respect
of your funds.

Secondly, we have been informed that you are still dealing with the
none officials in the bank and all your attempts to secure the release
of your fund are still in vain. We wish to advise you that such an
illegal act has to stop if you wish to receive your payment since we
have decided to bring a solution to your problems in receiving the
funds. This idea is the latest instruction given to this bank by the
Federal Ministry of Finance and Economy.

You are now going to receive your funds when you provided the
following information as urgent as possible as through beneficiary of
the funds.

Your full name
Phone and fax number
Address
Your age and current occupation
A copy of your identity

Once again, you have to stop henceforth your further communication
with any other person or office regarding this transaction, this is to
avoid any hitch or delay in finalizing your payment. The transfer of
your total sum of (USD$8.500,000.00) will be completed as soon as
possible

Also note that because of impostors, we hereby issue you our code of
conduct, which is ECO BANK-994 you must have to indicate this code
while replying back to this email(customercarecobankbenin@gmail.com) .

Yours sincerely,
Mr Cheikh Travaly.
Executive Director
ECOBANK PLC.

Anti-fraud resources: