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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.

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Fraud email example:

From: "Slash Savimbi" <savimbitg4@yahoo.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: savimbitg@yahoo.com
Date: Sat, 17 Sep 2005 15:26:13 +0800
Subject: ASSISTANCE NEEDED''''''

Good Day

I got your contact through an email directory and decided to contact you for assistance. I am the son of Jonas Savimbi, the rebel leader in Angola who was shot dead on the 25th of February 2002, by the opposing Angolan Army.

Before the death of my father, he deposited the sum of Six million eight hundred thousand dollars ($6,800,000.00) in a security company in malaysia as a family value iterm. My father handed all the legal documents for the deposit to the family attorney.

Also, after the death of my father, I and my junior brother fled to Malaysia where we are currently living,I decided to contact overseas firm and companies that will assist me to move this money out of MALAYSIA because as asylum seekers we are not allowed to operate any bank account within MALAYSIA. before that take a look at this.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_1839000/1839252.stm
So, we want you to help us make claims of this fund ($6.8M) from the Security Company in Malaysia as my family beneficiary and transfer the money to your account or any account of your choice for that matter before I and my family can get Visas to fly down to your country for mutual sharing of the money.

My family has agree to give you 30% for your anticipated assistance and 60% would be for us (my family) and the remaining 10%would be set aside for any expenses that we may incure during the course of this transaction. My family share of 60% would be invested in your country in any profitable business proposed by you.

We have never met, but I want to trust you and please do not let my family down by sitting on
this money when it finally gets into your account. Please, treat this as Confidential
Best Regards,

Slash Savimbi



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