joewein.net   joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
Try our spam filter!
 Free trial for 30 days
   jwSpamSpy
Home
About Us
Spam
419/Nigeria
Fraud
Contact

"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: "LLoyds Bank TSB" (may be fake)
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2011 01:06:00 +0300
Subject: Account activity verification ,


Dear Customer,

We detected irregular activity on your
banking account on 29/06/2011.

For your protection, you must verify this
activity before you can continue using your
account.

Please download the document attached to this
e-mail to review your account activity.

We will review the activity on your account
with you and upon verification,

and we will remove any restrictions placed on
your account.

If you choose to ignore our request, you leave us no choice
but to temporaly suspend your account.

© Copyright LLoyds TSB Bank 2011 - All rights reserved

Anti-fraud resources: