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: stella_eze100@yahoo.co.in (Stella Eze)
Reply-To: stella_eze100@yahoo.co.in
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 14:50:07 +0300
Subject: PLEASE SAVE MY LIFE

Dear sir / madam
I greet you in the name of our lord.
My name is Mrs. Stella Eze. I am a widow and a mother of
Two all girls. I know you will see my letter to you
as an embarrassment considering the fact that we do
not know ourselves. I plead with you to be patient
with me I feel very pleased to contact you for some
assistance and business relationship. I live in
Nigeria with my children. My late husband was a
loving, caring and hardworking businessman who died
unfortunately In a ghastly auto crash. Before the
sudden death of my beloved husband, and father of my
daughters, my late husband intended to establish a
business in the united states of America with the sum
of$30 million united states dollars, but unfortunately
he died before this proposed venture. Following his
death, his family members insisted that I am not
entitled to his property (Assets and money) since I am
a woman and my offspring's all girls as I do not have
a male child for my husband. Well, according to some
barbaric traditional laws here in Nigeria (Africa)
which doesn't permit a woman to inherit a man's
property, as they are expected by tradition to take
over the management of his business and other
properties including myself who automatically becomes
a wife to one of his immediate brothers. Unfortunately
to this wicked family members, the $30million united
states dollars which my late husband intended to use
in establishing a business in the United States was
deposited in a bank account unknown to his family .I
and the lawyer is the only one aware of this money, so
I have discussed this matter with a staff of the bank
that i want this money personally so that I will be
able to take care of my children's educational needs
since my husband's family members vehemently opposed
the furtherance of their education. According to the
staff of the bank, the best way to secure this money
is to transfer this money to a bank account outside
Nigeria For safe-keeping, later it will be used for
business establishment subject to the Advise of
whosoever finally assists us. At this juncture, I
there fore ask for your sincere assistance in
providing us with your bank details and the enablement
to facilitate the remittance of this fund into your
nominated account. As soon as I get your positive
response, I shall provide you with all the necessary
detail for this transfer. However, I have decided to
to give you 30% of the total money as a reward for
your sincere assistance and the remaining 70% of the
money will be for my investment as I will want to keep
aglow my late husbands dream of investing in real
estate. To be able to help me, kindly send through my
email, your personal details including your contact
information for easy communication.
Thanking you for your anticipated response
Mrs.Stella Eze

Anti-fraud resources: