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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: "Mrs Lousa Estrada" <lousa@estradafamilyworld.com>
Reply-To: luisaestrada@uboot.com
Date: Thu, 01 Sep 2005 19:16:26 +0000
Subject: My Dreams and Your Hold,


Dear Friend,

Difficulties encountered in efforts to establish a business abroad
necessitate this search for someone to assist me in securing and
investing the sum of USD45, 000,000 (forty-five million dollars)
deposited in an escrow account in my name with a finance management company
in Europe. By way of summarized profile of myself, I am Senator Luisa
Pimentel Estrada, a 74years old lady and the first wife of Joseph Ejercito
Estrada (former head of state and President of Philippines) who is presently
held in detention in a hospital outside manilla, Philippines.This money are
in bonds and was kept in an escrow account of the finance company for safe
keeping and I
have all documents with me as of when it was deposited with the firm.
However, the current administration of Gloria Arroyo (The President of
Philippines) is seeking the death of my husband. In pursuit of this
vendetta, the present Government have resolved to freeze all known assets of
Joseph Ejercito Estrada including properties at home and abroad and are
presently embarking on to seize the various bank accounts of my Husband in
Switzerland, UK
and Australia. In fact, the attack on our family (The Estrada's) is so
devastated to an extent of seizing our traveling passport, family
accounts, trying some members of our family in court for offences
allegedly committed by my Husband and even restrict us from seeing my
husband. My son was released from detention on the agreement to refund $1.5
million to the Government of Philippines allegedly stolen by my Husband. You
can find this on;
http://latelinenews.com/ps/english/29432.shtml
http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/2001/0129/cover1.html
http://www.estrada.com
We are not ready to comply with this as most of the family assets and bank
accounts abroad have been frozen by the Arroyo regime. In view of this
grievous threat to our Economic and personal survival, our family trustee
have secretly protected the deposit, you are to assist us to contact the
Finance company in Europe to lay claims of the funds with the aid of legal
documents that will be forwarded to you. In other to facilitate the transfer
of the funds, you would be required to open a non residential transit
account with your company name with the finance company if you are not
residing in the country where the finance company is located. In the
meantime, there is a traveling embargo on the family members and our local
accounts are seized as well as our telephone lines have been bugged. For
this
reason, telephone conversation will not be an ideal means of
communication because our calls will be recorded. We are currently being
catered for by the Government of Philippines in other to monitor and control
our financial activities. We cannot be held responsible for the sins of my
Husband. In view of this plight, I expect you to be trustworthy and kind
enough to respond to this distressed call to save our family from a hopeless
future. And if you agree to help, we shall discuss the disbursement ratio in
our next correspondence after we have been acquainted. To summarize this
traumatic story, I have decided to offer 20% of the above sum to anyone who
assists us to secure these funds overseas or 30% share for possible help on
investing in any reliable venture. If you would want to proceed under these
terms, please reply for detailed information. If you do not accept my offer,
please in good fate treat with utmost confidentiality. Please note that
email correspondence will be safer due to the fact that all our phone lines
have been bugged. pls get back to me.i await your response. Sincerely yours,
Mrs Luisa Estrada.


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