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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: "UNITED NATIONS WEST AFRICA" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <info_un2011@mail.kz>
Date: Wed, 18 May 2011 23:40:25 +0100
Subject: Welcome to the united nations. It's your world!


Message from United Nations West Africa,

This is to notify you that we have your fund of USD$1,500,000.00 with us here in the UNITED NATIONS COMPENSATION COMMISSION OFFICE and your email was amongst the beneficiaries of the said fund. Due to your late response to our email and this transaction, there is someone here who claims he is from your country and he says he was sent by you to act on his behalf. He said he is ready to pay for the procurement of the legal documents which is (475 USD) for the release of the funds to him, he said he is going to pay the (475USD) . He has been held right away for verification purpose, for us to know if he is the real owner of this fund. Since the fund belongs to you we have to write you to let you know about what is going on.

The United Nation Compensation Commission aim of this donation is to promote standard of living, this program was organized to make a noticeable change in the standard of living for universal development, after thorough investigation on the person that allegedly claimed to have received a full authorization from you to act on your behalf as the legal beneficiary to the said amount, our fraud department has gathered prove that this person is not in any way related to you, our internal surveillance also detected that this person intercepted the previous notification that was sent to you, this attributed to the reason why the previous notification was not delivered to your mailbox, due to this fraudulent attempt by the imposter, we have been advised to mute all beneficiary details to avoid making out payment to the imposters/hoax person, to further finalize the full procedures for the release of your payment, you are hereby advised to kindly verify the information below in !
order to proceed with the release

(1). Your full names:
(2). Contact address:
(3. Valid Phone number:
(4). Age:
(5). Occupation:
(6) A copy of ID

This meeting was first held on the 8th of April 2003. You can view this page for your perusal:
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2003/ik344.doc.htm
Assess Code:8911-89-QDR

You have to reply within the next 24hrs along with your western union or money gram payment slip for security purpose so that your fund would not be transferred to another person. So you are to know what to do about this so that your fund would not be transferred or be claimed by another person.

I await your urgent response to this office immediately.

Mr. David Olu
UN Agent Officer (UNITED NATIONS WEST AFRICA).
Tel: +234-802-031-6198
http://www.un.org/

Anti-fraud resources: