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: "Desmond Maseko" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <desmondmasekko@superposta.com>
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 08:03:16 +0800
Subject: I AM VERY WILLING TO INVEST IN YOUR COUNTRY WITH YOU AS MY PARNTER

My name is Desmond Maseko, from South Africa and I am a 55years old married man with four children and a lovely wife, I got your contact details from an online directory and was interested in you as my partner because am very willing to invest in your country but I do not have a business permit there since am not a citizen of your country.

If you will be interested to partner with me, then reply my email so I give you the full details and we negotiate terms to start the investment plan.

Special Regards,
Desmond Maseko
Telephone: +277 1151 3523

Anti-fraud resources: