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"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.

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Fraud email example:

From: "albert kumalo" <kumalo12@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: ahkumalo13@katamail.com
Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 00:31:24 +0000
Subject: treat

Dear Sir/Madam,
Greetings in the name of the most High! My name is Dr.Albert Khumalo
from Johannesburg, South Africa, a close confidante of Mr.Johnson
Edwards, a foreign national who was a Solid Mineral Merchant in Zimbabwe.
After his death, I have made several enquiries to your embassy to locate
any of my friend's extended relatives without success.
After these several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to trace his last
name over the Internet, to locate any member of his family which did
not yield any result hence, I have decided to seek your assitance and
cooperation to retrieving the money left behind by my late friend before
it is confisicated or declared unserviceable by the security company
where this huge deposit was lodged.
The problem arose during the war against white-owned farmers in
Zimbabwe. President Robert Mugabe & his supporters promulgated a deliberate
decree which was not in favour of the white famers.
This is an attempt to claim all the white-owned farms for his party
members cohorts. He ordered all white farmers to surrender their farms to
his party members and his followers. My friend being one of the biggest
solid minerals merchant in Zimbabwe and because he did not support
Mugabe's ideas, Mugabe's supporters invaded his farmland, burnt everything
on the site, killing him, his entire household and made away with
almost every valuable items on his farm. Before his death, he deposited the
sum of Twelve Million, United States Dollars (US$12M) only with a
security company in Europe. Due to apprehension all over the place following
his cold-blooded murder, I decided to move out of Zimbabwe temporarily.
However, Johnson Edwards died couple of days after he returned from a
business visit to the security company in Europe. He actually went to
extend the period of domicile of this fund for another twelve (12)
months.
As I could not locate my late friend's relatives for some years now, I
decided to solicit for assistance for any foreign national to front as
Edward's next-of-kin to enable us receive the funds otherwise it will
be confiscated or declared unserviceable by the security firm. There is
no risk involved.I have the legal documents & I have visited the
company with him in the past. We will not violate any known law of my
country
and that of yours as far as this transaction is concerned.
You will receive 50% of the total sum for your cooperation and
assistance while I retain the balance of 50%. All I want is your
confidential
phone, fax, contact address for easy communication and filing of the
release documents. Note that this information will be treated with top
most confidentiality from both sides and the transaction will not exceed
seven (7) days. You may contact me via my other
email:(ahkumalo13@katamail.com)
I remain,
Sincerely yours,
Dr.Albert Khumalo


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