joewein.net   joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days
  jwSpamSpy

Home
About Us
Spam
419/Nigeria
Fraud
Contact

"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: Mark Ed Allen <markedallen7@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2017 05:54:50 +0100
Subject: Payment Notification

--
I am Mark D. Allen of the Debt Recovery committee (D.R.C). My committee has
the mandate to recover unpaid debts associated with contracts, lottery
fund, inheritance fund, loans and grants etc ranging from $ 1M- $ 19.5m
owed to various beneficiaries across the globe (Asia, Europe, USA, Africa,
and Australia) and submit the list of the unpaid beneficiaries to the
appointed official paying Banks for immediate payment of the fund.

In the course of our investigation, your email address / particulars were
listed among those yet to be paid hence this email. However, we received a
petition yesterday from one Mrs.Christina Morgan that you are dead.
According to her, you died in a plane crash therefore that the fund be paid
to her as the heir apparent. She has submitted her Bank account with FNB
for the transfer of the fund to her.

To avoid undue delay or paying the fund to wrong beneficiary, I have
decided to contact you for confirmation. If I fail to hear from you after
72 hours, it will be assumed the petition of Mrs. Morgan is true and the
fund will be paid to her without further delay.

Therefore, if you are still alive, reconfirm your particulars as stated
below and send immediately.

1. Full Name: 2. Address: 3. Nationality: 4. Date of Birth and Sex:
5.Occupation:
6. Phone: 7. State of Origin:

Yours sincerely,
Mark D Allen
Fund Clearing House

Anti-fraud resources: