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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: "Nigeria Police Force" <pioneer1@yoafrica.com>
Reply-To: nigeriapoliceforce1@volny.cz
Date: Sun, 08 Nov 2015 02:10:46 +0100
Subject: Attn: ATM card beneficiary.


Office of the Inspector General of Police IGP Solomon Arase Nigeria Police =
Force Headquarters Zone 7, Headquarters, Wuse 3 Wuse Abuja, Nigeria. Attn: =
ATM card beneficiary, RECOVERY OF DIVERTED ATM CARD I am contacting you per=
sonally to notify you of our discovery as well as get some fact from you. R=
ecently we arrested a man with name Francisco Zuela a Ghanian Citizen who w=
ork with D.H.L office in Lagos with an ATM CARD with your name on it as the=
beneficiary and the owner of the card. However the entire parcel containin=
g the proof of claim ownership which is also in your name has so far has be=
en recovered from him. After we arrested and interrogated him, he confessed=
as stated below. My name is Francisco Zuela, I work with the D.H.L office =
in Nigeria. Earlier this year, I was approached by a staff of Zenith Bank P=
LC about the diversion of a parcel containing ATM CARD belonging to one Ric=
hard L. Weaver. Which I agreed and then we collaborated to divert the card =
from been dispatched to the destination. Later we wrote to the Issuing bank=
as the beneficiary and with the help of the collaborator, the risk and man=
agement department of the bank gave me the pin code of the card. Since then=
I have been making withdraw sharing with my collaborators until this week =
when the card was blocked by the bank that I should contact the issuing ban=
k, already I have made withdraw of about USD$10, 800.00 within this period =
before I was arrested within the bank when I came to reactivate the card si=
nce it was blocked. The above is the suspect' s confession and we have cont=
acted the card issuing bank {Zenith Bank PLC} who also told us that they no=
ticed the use of the card in Nigeria which is not supposed as the beneficia=
ry was supposed to be based outside Nigeria though the identity of the ment=
ioned person was not disclosed. They confirmed that there was an applicatio=
n from you to re-release the ATM Card Pin upon receipt which direct was sen=
t to an email with your name as false fully inserted on your details by the=
collaborator who is believed to be within the banking system, but they are=
not aware that you have not received the card since you did not inform the=
m hence the card was diverted. We will like to hear from you immediately to=
enable us carry out action as well make arrangement for the ATM CARD to be=
re-dispatched to you without any delay upon reconciliation with the issuin=
g bank. From our secret investigation so far, we have confirmed that this s=
uspect is in collaboration with some officials of the bank to divert this C=
ARD without your knowledge which is confirmed in our Investigation. At this=
point, do not communicate with anyone to avoid leakage information until w=
e are able to arrest everyone involved. Waiting your Immediate Response. Yo=
urs Sincerely, A.S.P Martins Abebe Police Public Relation Officer Nigeria P=
olice Force Headquarters Abuja. Phone: 234 1 7763737 Ex 223 Email: nigeriap=
oliceforce1@volny.cz=20

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