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: "Linda Gina Lagu<liwingu16@inbox.lv>" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <liwingu16@inbox.lv>
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 12:21:06 +0200
Subject: Re: Resp sir

Hello Dearest

I want you to help me secure a stay in your country with the money i inherited from my parents. I am from South Sudan but currently in Ivory Coast. My parents were victims of the present crisis going on in my country so i managed to escape through road with my late father's briefcase to a Catholic Church here in Ivory Coast West Africa because Ivory Coast is the safest place in Africa and it is were my late father has been doing business of Cocoa before i was born. My name is Linda Lagu. I am 16 years old. I want to relocate to your country from here since i am now an orphan and can no longer go back to my country.

Because of my age and limited status, I want you to be my guardian and stand as my late father's overseas business partner so that it will be easy for the bank to release and transfer to your bank account the money my late father deposited with them here in Ivory Coast. I found in his briefcase a deposit document containing three million eight hundred thousand dollars and I have succeeded in locating the bank where my late father deposited the money and have identified my self properly and also informed them about the sad fate my parents had suffered. The bank confirmed the deposit document and said that my late father deposited the money in their bank escrow account.

Now I want to relocate to your country from here so that you can guild me and invest the money properly in your country. I will also further my college education under your guardianship. I want to live under your guardianship.

I saw your contact address and i decided to contact you to give out my trust to you. It is true i do not know you in person but i pray that you have it in your heart to assist me with all sincerity and honesty. You will guild me and invest the money and also manage the investment until i am capable. Please if you can help me, i will want you to send your contact information which the bank can use to contact you so that i can make your name available to the bank as my late father's overseas business partner and guardian that will attest on my behalf for the release of the money since i am still armature. I am willing to give you any amount which you will wish to have after helping me achieve my dream of relocating to your country with this money. Thank you and May God bless you and your family as you help me achieve my dream of relocating to your country to start a new life and further my education under your guardianship.

I hope with your adverse experience i can have the money successfully transferred to your country and i will have a better life to live in your country under your guardianship.

Your Faithfully
Linda Gina Lagu

Anti-fraud resources: