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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:

Fraud email example:

From: "UN/IMF COMPENSATION OFFICE" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <info-western-union@yandex.com>
Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2014 05:21:25 -0700
Subject: Western Union Payment.

Dear Beneficiary,
 
We wish to inform you that your part payment compensation entitlement  $950,000 (Nine Hundred and fifty thousand United States Dollars) has been officially approved for payment through Western Union Money Transfer after all satisfactory proof shown in your payment file submitted to my desk. The United Nations (UN) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) through their Benin office approved this part payment to you since our records has shown the authenticity of your claim and our international intelligence payment monitoring network also confirmed that your payment has been held up by a few corrupt officials who has been demanding numerous extravagant fees to conclude this transaction. 
 
The accredited Western Union payment office will send your daily payment of $10,000 (Ten Thousand United States Dollars) to your name until your total payment is completed so urgently contact Western Union payment Representative officer Mr. Charles Kelvin at ( charles@representative.com ) with phone # ( +229 99784228 ) and reconfirm your daily payment receiver's details as listed below.
 
- Receiver's Name ................
- Receiver's Address  ...............
- City ............................
- Country ......................
- Telephone/ Mobile # .................
- Test Question ....................
- Test Answer .......................
 
Based on the mentioned previous delay in releasing your payment all these while, this part payment comes to you with a favorable condition of no Extravagant upfront payment in advance except the Administrative transfer charges which is officially 0.01% of  total compensation funds amounting to $95 (Ninety five united States Dollars), Note that no amount of funds can be deducted, Withdrawn or transferred from your total compensation payment as programmed by the Federal Ministry to avoid loss of any part of your money until completely received by you.
 
Kindly provide your receiver’s information to enable us inform you how to pay the outstanding Administrative transfer charges so that your first payment of $10,000 USD will be released before the end of today.  Be advised to keep all information contained in this email highly confidential to avoid double claim or loss of any part of your daily payment as scheduled.
 
Thanks for your anticipated corporation and understanding.
 
Yours Sincerely,
Mrs Maria Anderson
UN/IMF Compensation payment office
 

Anti-fraud resources: