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: "Category'B'" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <staatclaims@aol.nl>
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2011 19:58:19 +0200
Subject: Reminder

Microsoft in Conjuction with Alliance Inter.Net Award
Promotion. Batch nr: SPYU6868 / Ref.nr: 5687SPL876.

Following the publication of results of the electronic
online sweepstakes organized for emails that frequent
the Internet. Your email ID emerged recipient of=
500,000.00 Euro only.

Contact: Mr. Dirk van Goes,
Tel: +31- 633 968 651, Fax: +31- 847 549 511.
Email: lotto.nl.info@aol.nl [or] staatclaims@aol.nl

Send: 1. Your Full Names/ Tel/ Gender.......
2. Occupation...... 3. Nationality......

Anti-fraud resources: