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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: "david.harden.chantal" <spainbank8@gmail.com>
Reply-To: david.harden.chantal@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2023 16:49:16 +0000
Subject: SANTANDER BANK COMPENSATION UNIT, IN AFFILIATION WITH THE UNITED NATION.

This is to inform you that, We have been working towards the
eradication of fraudsters and scam Artists in Africa with the help of
the Organization of African Unity (OAU) United Nations (UN), European
Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and FBI. We have
been able to track down so many of this scam artist in various parts
of African countries which includes (Nigeria, Republic of Benin,
Ghana, Cameroon and Senegal) and they are all in Government custody
now, they will appear at International Criminal Court (ICC) Hague
(Netherlands) soon for Criminal/Fraud Justice. During the course of
our investigation, we have been able to recover so much money from
these scam artists. The United Nations Anti-Crime Commission and the
International Monetary Fund  (IMF) have ordered the money recovered
from the Scammers to be shared among 100 Lucky people around the World
for compensation. This Email/Letter is been directed to you because
your email address was found in one of the Scam Artists file and
computer hard-disk during our investigation, maybe you have been
scammed or not, you are therefore being compensated with the sum of
5.2 Million EUR. We have also arrested some of those who claim that
they are barristers, bank officials, Lottery Agents who has been
sending you SMS on your phone that you have won a lottery which does
not exist. Since your email address appeared among the lucky
beneficiaries who will receive a compensation funds, we have arranged
your payment to be paid to you through ATM VISA CARD. An ATM Visa Card
will be issued in your name and your 5.2 Million EUR will be loaded
into it, and deliver it to your postal address with the Pin Number, as
to enable you withdrawal your funds from any Bank ATM Machine
worldwide. To issue the ATM Visa Card, you are therefore advised to
contact the Accountant in Charge of your payment, this is because the
United Nations Anti-Crime Commission and the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) and the Government has chosen them to payout all the
compensation funds to the 100 Lucky beneficiaries, because the ATM
Visa Card is a global payments technology that enables consumers,
businesses, financial institutions and governments to use digital
currency instead of cash and checks. Kindly contact us now for mor
details
thanks...

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