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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: =?UTF-8?B?IkphY29iIEFtaW4i?= <naziharabah801@terra.com.pe>
Date:
Subject:

Dear Chosen one,

I know this message&nbs= p;may come to you as a surprise.

Howev= er, it is my urgent need for a fore= ign partner that made me to contact you&= nbsp;through this medium. My name is Mr,Jacob=  Amin , I am the manager of auditin= g section in one of the prime bank = here in Ouagadougou Burkina Faso, West Africa= . I have a business proposal in the = ;tune of (USD $21,000.000.00) Twenty one mill= ion US Dollars only. This is an abandone= d fund that belongs to a deceased custom= er of my bank that made fix deposit = ;for (7 calendar years and upon maturity = ;we sent a routine notification to his f= orwarding address but got no reply. After&nbs= p;some months, we sent reminder and finally&n= bsp;we discovered that he passed away after&n= bsp;brief illness in his country. We tried&nb= sp;everything humanly possible to locate his = relatives but all efforts failed. The deposit=  is still intact with our bank and = the interest is being paid into the prin= cipal sum at the end of each year.
I&= nbsp;discovered all the related documents of = the deposit while I was arranging old fi= les for annual remark but I kept it = ;secret not until now because the bank a= gree recently to confiscate the fund if = no body contact the bank as the next&nbs= p;of kin for the claim hence my secret&n= bsp;contact with you. To be honest with = you, the transaction is totally genuine and&n= bsp;100% risk-free but the secret must remain=  between me and you. I have been wo= rking with this bank for years and I&nbs= p;know all their secret and systems of o= peration, and I have carefully mapped-out my&= nbsp;perfect strategies to carry out the tran= saction successfully. We shall share in ratio=  of 40% for you and 60% for me,&nbs= p;should you be interested Kindly send your&n= bsp;response to (jacobamain@yahoo.com)

Please keep&nb= sp;this proposal as a top secret between = ;both of us, and delete it immediately i= n your email box if you are not int= erested.
Thanks and regards
MrJacob Amin.


<= br>

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