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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: "Sherif el-Adly" <insorg@w4s369yak.homepage.t-online.de>
Reply-To: <sherifeladly@skymail.mn>
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2011 15:04:42 -0700
Subject: Good Day; Read (A Classified Information)

 
Goodday to you.
 
I hope you will not mind my writing to you, though I feel that a letter  like this is the most confidential and effective way to contact you.
 
My name is Sherif el-Adly, son of Habib Ibrahim el-Adly (Ministry of Interior (Egypt). This might be a surprise to you but I choose to contact you because i know you can assist me. Am sure you are aware of our enemies have used the Egyptian citizens against us.
 
They have sent my father to jail and they want to kill him. They have  frozen all our bank accounts here in Egypt and also in U.S and England.
They want to ruin us totally, not considering many years of dedicated  service of my father to them. Read the bbc middle east news below.
Click the website/link below to read about this injustice on us.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12655550
 
My mother is in bad health condition right now and the doctors need  some funds to carry out an operation now that the cancer is early.  We cannot access any funds due to the several confiscations on all our accounts and assets.
 
My father in detention disclosed to me that he has some money deposited with a security firm which i will disclose to you later. He advised me to check with them and look for a foreigner and present the person as  the beneficiary to the funds.
This is the reason why I have contacted you. I do not want to carry out  this task with any member of my extended family or friends, we are very  much afraid of betrayal as we do not know who have been feeding the  present government most of our secret information. Most of our family members and friends have turned us down since the detention of my  father.
 
If you can genuinely assist us to receive this funds in your country,  we shall pay you 20% of the total sum. The total sum is U.S$27 Million Dollars.
I intend to invest these funds in properties for now, until the entire  problems die down and then I can move my family out of Egypt and we can settle in your country.
 
If you are interested in assisting us and earning the 20% of the funds  please furnish me with your full name, Physical Address and your  private Telephone Number. All logistics to have the funds safely  transported to your country is in place.
 
Best regards,
 
Sherif el-Adly
For the Family

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