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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: Western Union Money Transfer <g2uk10@gmail.com>
Reply-To: uk210g@yahoo.com
Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2011 09:24:45 -0800 (PST)
Subject: REPLY






This is the Western Union Money Transfer Office Headquarters Burkina Faso wish to inform you that the sum of $280,000.00 has been paid to you, or to the addressee, either by you or by individual who claimed to be a representative of a corporate body when we are asking her for her ID Card, International Passport or any legally accepted documents for proof of Identity, to help transfer the money via a Special Transfer Service (STS) since it is big above amount accepted to transfer through our service at a time.   When we asked the question she wrote this e-mail ID instead of present her ID maybe by misunderstanding our question request. She did not have the ID by then we asked her to return the next day with National ID Card, International Passport or any legally accepted documents for proof of Identity, to help transfer the money, but surprise we did not hear or see from the depositor again since the 14th of October, 2010. Of which the money is now
hanging online causing unwarranted network problem due to it is above amount allowed by our policy.   Therefore, we would like you to provide us with your Full Name, and Address to help us know if we can recall by verifying the recipient information that has been provided by her before she went out of the office.   We might also need your Telephone number for call conversation, (should the need arise), so as to conclude the transfer to you.   Signed, Staff in oporation




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