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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: "Christine Lagarde(IMF OFFICE)" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <ChristineLagardeIMF1979@outlook.com>
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2017 12:48:27 -0500
Subject: IMF/UNITED NATIONS APPROVED FUND

International Monetary Fund,
700 19th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20431
 
Attention Beneficiary,
 
This is to enlighten you of a very important information which will be of a great help to redeem you from all the difficulties you have been experiencing. We want to notify you that the IMF in conjunction with other relevant agencies in the United STATES of America have recently been informed through our Global intelligence monitoring network that you have an over-due payment in tune of ten million, three hundred thousand US dollars (USD10.3Million) in Federal reserve bank. This was as a result of excess cash disbursement by the United Nations.
 
This exercise was conducted by a random email selection and you happen to be among the lucky beneficiaries to benefit from the exercise this year. We try as much as possible to keep a low profile on this to avoid any hoax because there are a lot of impostors and impersonators jeopardising the good intent of this winning exercise.
 
I am Christine Lagarde a highly placed official of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Washington, D.C. I have been assigned to take responsibility of this year's winning exercise. It may interest you to know that reports have reached our office by so many correspondence on the uneasy way which people like you might be treated by Various Banks and Courier Companies etc, we have decided to hand over the fund to the federal reserve bank to complete the final remittance of your fund into your account.
 
You are to contact Mr. Jerome H. Powell who happens to be a member of the federal reserve board via the email address below.
 
E-mail:   jeromepowellFRBNY@aol.com
website: www.federalreserve.gov
 
NB: Please kindly report any suspected scam/fraud email or ongoing transaction to this office immediately for investigation and verification and wait for feedback. God bless you.
 
Regards,
Christine  Lagarde (Director)
International Monetary Fund
Head Department Washington D.C.© 2017

Anti-fraud resources: