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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: "U.S. Department of the Treasury (service@treasury.gov)" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <finance-control@accountant.com>
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 19:09:14 +1000
Subject: Verify This Information

The U.S. Department of the Treasury
Treasury Annex
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20220
United States of America
Tel: +1-(202) 622-2000
Fax: +1-(202) 478-0979
 
Monday, November 24, 2014
 
Our Ref: USA/TREAS/898ATCP
Your ref: USA/IMF/2840/259
 
 
                                      CASE REPORT:TREAS//898ATCP=APPROVED TRANSACTION
 
Complete the security instruction below and do not disregard any letter from our department.
 
This is to inform you that your file was forwarded to our department for correction before payment. The services we provide are not only limited to cooperate bodies around the globe, but it is also extended to favor individuals who are experiencing serious difficulty in recovering their Contract/Inheritance Funds, Gambling/Lottery Awarded Funds (sponsored by multinational companies) and other international suspended/withheld funds yet to be paid to its beneficiary. Nevertheless, we have contacted most of these international financial institutions in Europe and in Africa to find out the source of your unpaid fund, the reason for a delay in payment and a final solution to this problem.
 
Conclusively, we discovered that your fund was placed on hold because majority of these international fund remittance/transfer of over the total sum of $500,000 and above to private or business accounts, usually carried out by foreign banks, private or commercial courier companies were not systematically registered due to the incomplete details of payment submitted by the fund beneficiary. In joint alliance with the International Monetary Fund to resolve this issue, we have gone through your transaction records and our extensive investigation confirmed that you are one of the individual shortlisted to receive a recovered sum of Ten Million United States Dollars ($10,000,000.00 USD).
 
As part of our vital national security measure, we are yet to confirm your identity in order to be sure that your email address is not hacked or being accessed by a third party because we already received a false instruction from an unknown personality to redirect your funds into another international bank account and we are yet to confirm if you are aware of this development. Therefore, you are advised to provide your full name, home address and telephone number along with an evidence of your identification document such as a scanned copy of your driver’s license or international passport for verification before payment. If we do not receive an acknowledgement to this message, we will be compelled to seek legal representation from our in-house attorney to terminate your claim.
 
Forward your details or email it to: sarah.bl@secretary.net for assistance.
 
Regards,
Ms. Sarah Bloom Raskin,
Deputy Secretary,
Foreign Assets Control.
U.S. Department of the Treasury.
============================================
Questions about this information should be directed to
The U.S. Department of the Treasury
Telephone: +1-(206) 259-6650.
 

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