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.

 

 

Fraud email example:

From: "Mercy Kume" <mekume@hotmail.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: mercykume@netscape.net
Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2004 17:44:18 +0100
Subject: Confidential

Dear Friend,

I am Mrs.Mercy Kume, wife of late Mr Anthony Kume, a wealthy Zimbabwean
farmer who was brutally murdered in a land dispute together with his
oversea
partner Mr. pete Bailey and the whole of his family as result of land
act
reform by Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe. The whole of our
farmland amd
properties were destroyed by the mobs. The new land act reform which
affected the white and black farmers, resulting to massive killing by
war
veterans and lunatics in the society.

My husband died without leaving a word neither to me nor our only son,
but
his partner was rushed to the hospital where he later died after 2
days.
Before my husband partner died, he confided in me that he deposited
US$29,000,000 (Twenty Nine million united states dollars) in one
private
security company in Europe, that the money was meant for the purchase
of new
machineries for mechanised agriculture for the Zimbabwean farmers
movement
and new farms in Swaziland. He said that all I have to do is to source
for
an oversea partner who can be placed as the Beneficiary of the fund so
that
I and my son can have a new lease of life again. He made me promise
that
since he has no other leaving relatives, that I will not let money go
down
the drain.

I was later diagnosed to have cancer of the breast which resulted to my
losing one part of the breast to surgery. Presently, I am hospitalised
because my condition started deteriorating in a very strange manner. My
doctor gave me the saddest news of life as he told me that the cancer
has
spread to every part of my body including my liver. I have been boldly
told
that I just have a very short time to leave. As things are now, I am
not
afraid to die, but I don¡¯t want my son to suffer and I don¡¯t want to
let
late Mr.Bailey down by not having this claimed.

Consequently, my proposal is that I will like you as a foreigner to
stand in
as the next of kin to Late Mr. Pete Bailey .This you can do by
corroborating
with my Kenneth who is currently seeking political asylum in Europe,
and our
family attorney to actualise this claim. I will request that you send
me
your personal details viz: Your full name and private home address,
your
telephone and fax number.this will enable the attorney to place you as
the
next of kin to late Mr.Pete Bailey.The sharing mode will be as follows.

1.30% of the fund will be for you

2.50% will be for my son which you will have to invest for him as his
guadian.

3.10% will be donated to the Southern African research center for
cancer.

4.While 10% will be set out for all the bills encured to conclude this
transaction including the attorney fees.

There is no risk at all as all the paperwork for this transaction will
be
done by the Attorney and with my support and endorsement I can
guarantee the
successful execution of this transaction. I cannot answer to any phone
calls
here in the hospital because of my situation.So if you are interested
in
this transaction, kindly declare your interest by replying to this
e-mail
via my private mail mercykume@netscape.net

For your information the success and safety of this transaction will
depend
on your co-operation to keep it confidential and secret.As soon as I
receive
your favourable reply , I will proceed to forward you with further
information.

Thank you and may God bless you.

Yours respectfully,

Mercy Kume(Mrs)



Anti-fraud resources: