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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: "Wren, Jacob" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <j.wren114@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 23 May 2017 22:30:31 +0100
Subject: Re: From Wren, Jacob

From: Wren, Jacob

Attn: Sir

I am, Jacob Wren (Mr.), member Contract Awards and Monitoring Committee of Ministry of Urban and Rural Development. I got your information from business network online, my duty as empowered by the British Government is to monitors provision the basic amenities, social recreational activities in urban and rural areas, this programs include assistance to deprived local communities and to co-ordinate project and development at the national levels, further more from this projects we have been able to secure some reasonable amount of money to the tune of Eight Million Five Hundred thousand British Pounds as commission from various contractors resulting from over invoicing, hence all the necessary approvals has been completed.

This approved fund is now securely deposited with a financial instituion here in U.K for onward transfer to its destination. This fund is deposited with the reason that it is payment for a foreign expatriate/company {contractor} as we are Government officials we are not allowed to operate or open a foreign bank account hence you need to stand as the beneficiary and claim this funds on our behalf from the bank.


I am making this contact with you with faith of making as a reliable person/company with high integrity/dignity one with conscience that will claim this funds on our behalf as the beneficiary {the foreign contractor},and we have agreed to offer you 30% of the total sum as commission for your assistance/effort and 5% willbe used to settle every expense each of us might incur on the process, we will use our 65% to invest underyour recommendations and guide and go into joint venture business with you.


I would greatly appreciate your assistance, I look forward to hear from you be informed that confidentiality is the nature of this business because we would not be happy to loose our jobs. When i hear from you i will inform you further on how to proceed if you are willing to part of this project.


Best regards
Jacob Wren

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