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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: "Joseph Ifeanyi" <vicomails9@gmail.com>
Reply-To: paymentclearingandsettlementsy@gmail.com
Date: Sat, 07 Oct 2023 07:11:12 -0700
Subject: Please Do Not Ignore This Message


FROM THE DESK OF
JOSEPH IFEANYI

Attention

I know this message will come to you as a surprise as we don't know ourselves before now. I just got this email during a normal routing search on the net.

I am Joseph ifeanyi, the Director of affairs and corporate governance committee in a bank in the united states of america

I am writing this letter to ask for your assistance and co-operation to carry out this transaction. In my department I discovered an abandoned sum of ($800,00,000 ) Eight Hundred thousand United States dollars In an account that belong to one of our customer (MR Fred J. RAY) who died along with the wife and children in a ghastly motor accident in November 2018 and Since after his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money as the heir because we cannot release any money from the account unless someone applies for claims as the next of kin to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines.

Unfortunately neither his family member nor distant relatives has applied to claim the fund. Upon this discovery, I have decided to make business with you and release the total amount to you. Because according to the United States law of 1993 any account that has no valid claim after 5 years will be reverted to the government treasury, please note that this information is very confidential for security reasons.

I need your full cooperation because the management is ready to approve the payment to anybody who has correct information about this account, which I will give to you later if you are able to handle such an amount in strict confidence and trust according to my instructions and advice for our mutual benefit.

With my position now in the office, I can transfer this money to any reliable account, which you can provide with assurance that this money will be intact pending my physical arrival in your state of country for sharing. I will destroy all documents of the transaction immediately we receive this money leaving no traces to any place.

At the conclusion of this business, you will be given 55% and 45% is for me and my family.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks and God bless you as you get back to me indicating your interest as we commence immediately without wasting time
Best Regards,
Joseph Ifeanyi

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