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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: "GREG JERRY" <gregjery@jerry456.com>
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 15:56:40 +0000
Subject: URGENT BUSINESS TRANSACTION

From:Greg Jerry.
271/272 fallan close, garden avenue, London,
E-mail: gregjerry@myway.com

Do accept my sincere apologies if my mail does not meet your personal
ethics. I will introduce myself as Greg Jerry, a staff in the account
management section of the above firm here in the London.

One of our accounts with holding balance of us$36m(thirty six million
dollars) has been dormant and has not been operated for the past four (4)
years.
From my investigations and confirmations, the owner of this account, a
foreigner by name Mr. Christian Eich from Germany died in July 2000. Please
you can view the planecrash in this website:
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/ europe/859479.stm

And since then nobody has done anything as regards the claiming of this
money because he has no family members who are aware of the existence of
neither the account nor the funds.
I have secretly discussed this matter with a senior official of this company
and we have agreed to find a reliable foreign partner to deal with. We will
transfer the first {ten million} US$10million dollars into your account
successfully.and the second transfer of {twenty six million} US$26 million
dollars .we thus propose to do business with you, standing in as the next of
kin of these funds from the deceased and funds released to you after due
processes have been followed. This transaction is totally free of risk and
as the fund is legitimate and does not originate from drug, money laundry,
terrorism or any other illegal acts. On receipt of your response i will
furnish you with detailed clarification as it relates to this mutual benefit
transaction.

NOTE: Kindly reply me through my alternate email address:
gregjerry@myway.com.
I look forward to hear from you as soon as possible.

Kindest Regards,
Greg Jerry.


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