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joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
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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:
- This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "central bank of nigeria" (the name of a person or institution often appearing in 419 scams)
- "chief auditor" (the name of a person or institution often appearing in 419 scams)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
- This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
Fraud email example:
From: "Central Bank of Nigeria" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <centbnng@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 26 May 2011 13:16:10 -0700
Subject: INFORMATION
INFORMATION
attn: sir/madam
My name is sanusi lamido, governor central bank of Nigeria (cbn). I am writing you this letter because cool penny is better than millions of dollars it is better for one to live and die poor honest man than a rich dishonest one. I and the chief auditor (ca) and the chief security officer (cso) of our central bank of Nigeria have arranged with an officer Mr. Olufemi in account department to prepare your bank draft of $12.3m.
The reason while we do this it is because according to information gathered from the central bank of Nigeria. Computer, you have been waiting for a long time to receive your money without success. As I also found out that you have almost met all the statutory requirements of the central bank of Nigeria. In respect of your contractual payment, your problem is that of interest groups. A lot of people are interested in your payment and those people are merely doing paper works with you, they are not straight forward also we found out that some of the officials of the parastatals having the intention of extorting money from you with the pretence of helping you receive your money. for example Mr. Jerome karz of united states just wrote to us that you re dead and that you signed a deed agreement with him to divert your fund.
I can assure you that this may last for years yet nothing happens if you do not do away with those officers that you call your partners. And for security reasons do not tell anybody of this arrangement until you have your bank draft delivered to you in your door step by DHL. Please maintain top most secrecy as it may cause a lot of problems if found out that we are using this way to help you. Do not ever tell anybody about this until you have your money.
I want to help you because something in me is telling me that you are a honest person. When you conclude this, you shall on your own compensate us for the work well done for you.
Meanwhile, you
Reconfirm your contact address
telephone number
a means of identification for record purpose.
God be with us
Best Regards
Sanusi Lamido (CBN)
Governor Central Bank of Nigeria
+234 8020967989
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Anti-fraud resources:
