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: "Laura Stevens" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <laurajs273@yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 1 Dec 2018 06:33:39 -0800
Subject: Marked File

Hello
I am Miss Laura Stevens a computer scientist with central bank. I am 28 years old, working with C.B.N

Nigeria, I’m a foreigner, I came across a file which was marked X and the release disk painted RED, I took time to study it and establish out that the beneficiary have paid VIRTUALLY all fees but the fund has not been released.

The most Annoying thing is that they cannot tell the truth that, On no Account will they ever release the
fund; instead they let them Spend money unnecessarily. I do not intend to work here for long period of time, I can release this fund to you ONLY, if you can certify me of my Security and send my own share when I credit your bank account, Because, if I don't run away from this country after i made the Transfer, I will be in serious trouble and my life will be in Danger.

Please you may not understand it because, you may not know the system here. The Only thing I will need to release this fund is a special HARD DISK we call it HD520gig external hard drive for storage of
information’s. i will buy two of it, recopy the transfer information, destroy the previous one, and punch the computer to reflect in your Bank within 24-48hrs banking hours.

I will clean up the tracer and destroy the file, after which I will run away from this Country. Do get in
contact with me immediately.

You should send to me your convenient tell/fax numbers for easy communications. During official Hrs we don’t check our personal emails with the banks network.


Regards,

Miss Laura Stevens
swift/computer Department

Anti-fraud resources: