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: unitednations worldbank <unitednationsworldbank3@gmail.com>
Reply-To: mjoy46727@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2022 18:37:44 -0700
Subject: Hello Good Day

--
OFFICIAL LETTER FROM FBI
My name Mr. Christopher A. Wray FBI Director
Your fund was received at JFK airport and according to the name on the
consignment box the sender is from fund delivery office and necessary
fees/charges has been paid by the sender except $100 for FBI Wining
papers ,but a lady Janet came forward claimed you sent her to claim
your fund, is it true? did you order her to claim your money and be
informed that we came to an agreement with the U.S Custom Authority at
(JFK) John F. Kennedy Int’l Airport NYC that you will send the fee
latest tomorrow ,else your fund will be hand over to her while you
will be arrested for assigning her without informing us, waiting to
hear back from you Asap
Yours sincerel
Mr Christopher A. Wray FBI Director
From FBI investigation agency, it's my pleasure to inform you about
the message going viral all over the internet about your package,
which you won $200 million dollars, some people claim to be FBI, DHL,
BMW and so many other company to scam you but the painful part of it
is that one man named (Sam Kelvin) came to our office today and said
that you are dead and your family members choose him to claim your
package on your behalf and agreed to pay the needed fee that is
holding the package which is $400 only and we decided to confirm from
you before we release your package to him, your silence simply means
that what he says is true and we will release the funds for him, get
back to us as soon as possible to know what you said about how you
want to receive your package immediately to avoid diverting your
package to the wrong one, you don't have to give us your name or
address we have them here now once we hear from you we will deliver it
immediately to your house to avoid wrong delivery, this email address,
name and home address that is written here is the rightful owner of
this package
Thanks.

Anti-fraud resources: