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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: "City Bank NY" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <citibanknewyork@Safe-mail.net>
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2021 06:54:37 +0100
Subject: From City Bank Of New York

Sir
 
We the City Bank New York branch, hereby inform you that we received a notification from the FBI Director Mr. Christopher A. Wray from Washington DC instructing our branch to contact you concerning your pending transfer fund worth of $10.5M which has been in our custody for some time now undergoing for clearance before we can be able to credit the amount to your bank account.
 
There is every need you open up to us with your clear evidence of ownership to prove to us that you are actually the beneficiary of the above mentioned fund and we need a total clarification from you, before we can embark in effecting this transfer to your bank account, and i view of this recent instruction from the FBI Director, we are appealing to you to kindly forward to us the most recent last payment receipt you made and which purpose did you make the transfer for?
 
We also want to know from you whom  you sent this last payment to? and why he or she still did not release your fund to you we all want to know the reason why you still have not received this fund before it came to the notice of our bank through the FBI Director and you have to make this point clear to us for us to be sure that we are dealing directly to the owner of the fund, to avoid any contradiction etc.
 
This bank has been given every authority and legal backup documents to monitor this fund that has been in our custody unclaimed for some time now and we deemed it necessary to inform you that we will go to any length to protect you and your fund not to be paid out to unknown Person that is the reason why we are trying to gather all the information concerning this fund from you before we can proceed with you.
 
We will be more glad to hear from you by sending to us your full contact details including your telephone number, and any ID of your choice for proper verification and documentation, and once we have all this from you and verify them one after the other with the ones we have here, if it tally's with the ones we have here then we can proceed with you for further correspondence over your fund transfer.
 
I will appreciate you more if you can queue up with this last quarter payment arrangement which your own payment happens to be among the first batch we are to handle from the FBI Director and i look forward in receiving your soonest response regards to this matter.
 
Yours in service
Director Wire Transfer Department City Bank Of New York
Mrs. Barbara J.Desoer

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