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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. CHRISTOPHER A. WRAY" <test@central.mercfresh.com>
Reply-To: <file92146@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2022 05:20:31 -0700
Subject: Attention Fund Beneficiary!138!!

Anti-Terrorist and Monetary Crimes Division
FBI Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
J.Edgar Hoover Building 935 Pennsylvania Avenue,
NW Washington, D.C.
 
Attention Fund Beneficiary!!!
 
This e-mail has been issued to you in order to officially inform you
that we have completed an investigation on an International Payment in
which was issued to you by an International Lottery Company. With the
help of our newly developed technology (International Monitoring
Network System, we discovered that your e- mail address was
automatically selected by an Online Balloting System, this has legally
won you the sum of $2.5million USD from a Lottery Company outside the
United States of America. During our investigation, we discovered that
your e- mail won the money from an Online Balloting System and we have
authorized this winning to be paid to you ATM VISA CARD or CHECK.
 
We have successfully notified this company on your behalf that funds
are to be drawn from a registered bank within the world winded, to
enable you receive your fund instantly without any delay, henceforth
the stated amount of $2.5million USD has been deposited with IMF. We
have completed this investigation and you are hereby approved to
receive the winning prize as we have verified the entire transaction
to be Safe and 100% risk free, due to the fact that the funds have
been deposited with IMF you will be required to contact the IMF Office
in Benin Republic to settle the following bills directly to the IMF
Office,
 
(1) Deposit Fee's (IMF INTERNATIONAL CLEARANCE CERTIFICATE)
(2) Shipping Fee's ( This is the charge for shipping the ATM VISA CARD
to your home address)
 
The total amount for everything is $285.00 We have tried our possible
best to indicate that this $285.00 should be deducted from your
winning prize but we found out that the funds have already been
deposited to IMF and cannot be accessed by anyone apart from you the
winner, therefore you will be required to pay the required fee's to
the IMF Office in-charge of this transaction In order to proceed with
this transaction, you will be required to contact IMF director
in-charge (KARIM BARHOUMI)via e-mail. Kindly look below to find
appropriate contact information:
 
CONTACT AGENT NAME: MR. KARIM BARHOUMI
E-mail address: ( file92146@gmail.com )
 
You will be required to e-mail him with the following information:
 
1. Name in full.
2. Address.
3. Nationality.
4. Age.
5. Occupation.
6. Phone No.
7. Present Country.
8. Fax [optional].
9. Email address.
 
You will also be required to request Western Union or Money Gram
details on how to send the required $285.00 in order to immediately
ship your prize of $2.5 Million USD via ATM VISA CARD or CHECK from
IMF. Make your option on how you want to receive your payment, also
include the following transaction code in order for him to immediately
identify this transaction: EA2948-910. This letter will serve as proof
that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is authorizing you to pay the
required
$285.00 ONLY to KARIM BARHOUMI. via information, in, which he shall
send to you, Yours in Service,
Regards.
 
MR. CHRISTOPHER A. WRAY
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATIONS (F.B.I)

Anti-fraud resources: