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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: "Thompson Hoover" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <hoovert679@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2018 23:37:29 +0100
Subject: Greeting.....

Attn:

I have earlier written you on this matter, but did not receive any response from you, hence my decision to resend this message to you. I wish to notify you that I have been directed to contact you today by the Department of Relief Fund Payment of the World Bank in conjunction with the United Nations Foreign Debts Management through the Central Bank to release the equivalent sum of US$1,850,000.00 (One Million Eight Hundred and Fifty Thousand US Dollars Only) to you as a relief fund. It was established that you rendered assistance to some person(s) in the past who sought your help to assist them move out a certain sum of money out of their country to your own country for business investment.However, after using you and subjected you to spend lots of money to achieve this purpose, the fund was not released to you as they promised.In the process, you lost some monies and did not receive any dime up to date.

This particular amount of money has been approved to be paid to you as a relief fund to assist you cushion the effect of all you have lost and to further discourage you from dabbling into such dubious transaction that may be introduced to you, either by a citizen of this country or from any part of this world demanding for your participation in any contract business you never bid for or applied for, or standing as next of kin to any unknown person not related or known to you.You are hereby advised to reply this message and indicate your interest to receive this sum of money.

Best regards and wishes,

Dr.Thompson Hoover
(Accredited Auditor to the CBN)
T. Hoover and Co. (Chattered Accountants)
9th Floor of Western House, 8 -10 Broad Street
Lagos Island, Lagos, Nigeria

Anti-fraud resources: