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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: "Dr. PAUL B Owen" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <paul.owen@qip.ru>
Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2017 00:59:29 +0100
Subject: Urgent Response.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Dear Fund Beneficiary!!!,
 
This is to inform you that in the course of my investigation as director of
payment verification / implementation committee I came across your name as
unpaid fund beneficiary in the record of the central bank. My committee was set
up by the attorney general to verify and scrutinize all outstanding debts owed
to our foreign beneficiaries in accordance to the information received from the
United States government And European ,Asia Empowered By United Nations over
unpaid huge debts own? to United States citizens and European ,Asia Citizens as
well and Others Countries .
 
Having seen your file and my further questioning to the officials of the
central bank and ministry of finance as to why your payment is still pending
reveals the rot and corruption in the system. The bank officials told me that
the reason why you haven't received payment is due to your inability to pay for
the required charges for transfer of funds to your account. When I asked them
why they didn't deduct the said charges from your principal sum, I was given
the flimsy excuse that you never authorized them to do so. When I put the
question across to them if they ever advised you that such charges could be
deducted from your principal fund,the answer I got was no. Now, if you do not
tell this beneficiary that such charges could be deducted from his or her
principal fund, how will he or she know that such options are available for
such beneficiaries.
 
From my investigation I discovered that these bank officials deliberately
refused to let the charges be deducted from your principal fund because they
want your fund to remain trapped in the bank, while they continue to extort
money from beneficiaries under some flimsy excuse. You do not need to pay any
money to any official, all you are required to do is swear to an affidavit at
the federal high court, authorizing the bank to deduct all charges
from your principal fund and transfer the balance of funds after deduction to
your bank account. If you have spent any money in the past in your quest for
payment, kindly let me know so that I can follow this up.
 
You can reach me on my email address for directive on how you can get the
deduction done as soon as possible and get payment.
 
Regards,
Dr. PAUL B Owen
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND(IMF)
GENT NIGERIA.
EMAIL: paul.owen@qip.ru
 

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