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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: "Christopher Brown" <christopher_b02@att.net>
Reply-To: <diplomat.gov.gh@globomail.com>
Date: Wed, 3 Nov 2010 17:15:27 -0000
Subject: PAYMENT OF YOUR US$3,800,000.00 ACCRUED INTEREST

BARCLAYS BANK PLC LONDON
International Transfer
Processing Department
1 Churchill Place, London,
E14 5HP
Tel/Fax: +447031804751

PAYMENT OF YOUR US$3,800,000.00 ACCRUED INTEREST

After our recent meeting with the board of directors of this bank, there is a consideration for the contractors that executed contracts with African countries that has not received their contract payment but was left with asking to pay much taxes with African Nations.

We have considered your long suffering as one of the contractors affected with the predicament and we have decided to pay you this interest payment which was accumulated sometime ago when your contract Fund was brought to our bank from West African Foreign Contractors Payment center, Which was later return back to Africa. For the period of time this money was deposited in this bank, it generated an interest of US$3,800,000.00 (Three Million Eight Hundred Thousand U.S Dollars) which we considered your long suffering as one of the West African Countries contractors that has not received his payment and we have decided to pay you this interest fund to your account immediately.

Therefore you are requested to get back to us immediately to inform us your readiness to receive this fund so we can proceed and let you know the next thing to do.
Your urgent response will enable us to make the transfer as soon as possible.

Waiting for your immediate response

Regards,

Christopher Brown
(Director of Foreign Remittance)
Barclays Bank plc London

Anti-fraud resources: