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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: "Prof.Robinson Gate" <robinsongate1001@yahoo.co.jp>
Reply-To: robinsongate@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2010 12:56:31 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: I need your co-operation,



>From Prof. Robinson Gate
Foreign Remittance Department
Citibank of Abidjan,
Republic of Cote d'Ivoire
 
Good Day.
 
With good purpose of heart, I write to seek for your co-operation and assistance to secure a financial deposit made by one of our late customers.
 
I am Prof. Robinson Gate, a staff of CITIBANK of Cote d’Ivoire . Presently I am the Manager this Department. In my Department I discovered an abandoned sum of $8. million US dollars in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer, he died along with his family in a plain crash on the 30th of February 2005.
 
Since we receive the news of his death, a notification has been sent couples of times to the address we saw in his form, unfortunately we learn that all his supposed next of kin died along side with him at the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claims,
 
My reasons of contacting you is this.  at the expiration of 6years the money will revert to the ownership of the Government if nobody applies to claim the money. Consequently, my proposal is that I want you as a foreigner to stand in as the next of kin to receive this money.
 
This is a risk free transaction, every documents relate to this money is in my office. which will be forwarded to you soonest.
 
After the successful transfer we shall split the money 50/50 equally.
 
Looking forward to read your urgent response

Yours sincerely,
Prof. Robinson Gate



Anti-fraud resources: