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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: "Mr. Mark Limathai " <marklimathai84@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2022 00:11:31 -0800
Subject: RE: OVER DUE PAYMENT

Attention:


I returned to this office few weeks ago and during my

formal research, I discovered an ATM Card of $10.5M
with the card number 5199110789227920 with your name as

legitimate recipient/beneficiary. I tried to know why the

card has not been released but I was told that the formal

director of operations of ATM, left the office two months

ago without contacting you

Now I have the ATM Card, therefore, you are to prepare to

come for the pick up here in our bank (Nigeria) or

proceed to contact our offshore payment center in

Austria.

Let me know how you want to get your bank card together

with the PIN code.

You can come down in our bank and to pick it up directly

from my office or alternatively proceed to our offshore

payment center in Austria, because the transaction has

been stopped for a long time, but We can make an

exception

Your direct phone number and address will be needed, and

further details about the ATM card will be made known to

you as soon as I receive your quick positive response to

help

Thanks for the foreseeable cooperation and understanding.

We will as we will serve you better.

Reply to :marklimathai84@gmail.com


Sincerely,

Greetings,

Director: Foreign Operations.
ATM Card Dept

Anti-fraud resources: