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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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Richard Moloney" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrrichardmoloney@aol.co.uk>
Date: Sun, 24 Oct 2010 20:33:56 +0200
Subject: Your urgent attention is required

BARCLAYS BANK PLC
1 Churchill Place,
E14 5HP London
Registered No: 1026167
Tel: +44 7024078741
Fax: +44 870913799, +44 8701281683

Beneficiary,

Re: Payment of overdue funds.

We have been mandated to process, pay and retire all payments - inherittance, awards/ winnings, overdue contract payments etc either originating from the United Kingdom or routed through the United Kingdom.

We write to request that you revert to us on your outstanding funds transaction as stated above.

Your urgent attention is required to enable us fulfill the new government's mandate to liquidate all outstanding foreign payment transactions with all UK banks and financial institutions.

Sincerely,

For: Richard Moloney.
+44 7717490642
Executive Director (International Operations)

Anti-fraud resources: