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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: "Mary Benysek" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <belmironeil@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 3 Nov 2023 09:53:57 +0100
Subject: IMPORTANT MESSAGE ABOUT YOUR FUNDS

Hello,
 
I am Mary Benysek, I reside in New Carlisle, Ohio. I am a 62-year-Old victim of a scam, two years ago, I lost over US$74,000 to a dating and inheritance scam.  Recently, I learnt that the United Nations in conjunction with the United States government has a compensation scheme to compensate all scam victims and pending transactions fund, so I decided to travel with my son to WASHINGTON D.C with every proof to meet with FBI Agent Stephen E. Richardson, he showed me various inheritance, dating, lottery letters used by scammers. That was when it was clear to me that I had been scammed. After some hours in his office, he told me to come back the following week.
 
I went back as scheduled, he congratulated me and contacted my State liaison office, he gave me the contact of Special Agent Andrew Tweedie who is a Director of the Finance Department and also representative of the United States of America Public Affairs Section working with the UN/US compensation award committee. When I contacted him, he explained in detail every process and asked me to fly to Connecticut to see things for myself, which I did, and he took me to the bank for the claim of my compensation fund.
 
Right now, I am the happiest woman on earth because I have finally received my compensation fund of US$6,300,000.00. While going through the file on his desk, I came across five unclaimed files and your email address was attached on the list to be paid their compensation, this is why I am contacting you.
 
Lastly, the only Money I paid after I met with Andrew was just $970 for statutory stamp duty.  I am advising you to contact Andrew through his private email address: (andrewtwdie@gmail.com) for your compensation. Contact him right now and let him know you are among those to receive their compensation i hope he will assist you get yours too.
 
Thank you & God bless you.
 
Mary Benysek
300 Sunset Dr, New Carlisle,

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