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: Harry Ferdinand <info@lee.com>
Reply-To: harry_ferdinand05@aol.com
Date: Thu, 05 Feb 2015 15:51:54 +0200
Subject: To Confirm From GA

Hi,

I am Harry Ferdinand, head of luggage/baggage storage facilities here at the Hartsfield-Jackson International airport Atlanta Georgia. I am contacting you regarding an abandoned consignment box in our storage facility and the custom scan report of the box revealed an undisclosed sum of US dollar bill in it which could be approximately 2.5million-3million dollars. The consignment box was abandoned here by a diplomat who was on transit to your city due to lack of proper delivery clearance paper and his inability to pay the required fee of 2,900dollars on the diplomatic consignment box for clearance delivery on the official document of the consignment box which indicates your name, your address and your email address.


I have taken it upon myself to contact you personally about this abandoned box so that we can transact this as a deal and share the money 70% for you and 30% for me. I want you to provide me your full name, phone Number, full address and the nearest airport close to you to verify with the details in the official document. Immediately the confirmation is made, I will go ahead and pay for the clearance delivery Fee of 2,900dollars and arrange for the box to be delivered to you Or I can bring it myself to ensure a safe delivery but you have to assure me of my 30% share of the total money in the box. I can get everything concluded within 48hours upon your acceptance. All communication must be held extremely confidential to ensure a successful delivery.


Do send the required details to my private email address (harry_ferdinand05@aol.com) for quick processing and delivery. I will give you a call when I get your response. I wait to hear from you urgently and please treat as confidential if you want to co-operate.


Regards,


Harry.

Anti-fraud resources: