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: "Mrs Linda Cole" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <w_union11@outlook.com>
Date: Sun, 10 May 2015 21:23:39 +0100
Subject: STOP ALL FURTHER TRANSACTIONS

This is to inform you that $5000 has been sent to you via western union kindly contact the manager on this information for the due processes.Mr.Mark Jones ( w_union11@outlook.com ) Call him +229 999 423 59

The IMF commission who set up this payment programmer is now waiting for confirmation so hasten up and give the agent a call to process your funds at once. Please do not forget to update me as soon as you receive this first payment.

Your Full name,
home Address,
telephone number
Your country and city
Your occupation.

Once again congratulations.

Thanks,
Mrs Linda Cole

Anti-fraud resources: