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: "Louis Maha" <lomaha22@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: lomaha@kaixo.com
Date: Sat, 03 Sep 2005 01:45:54 +0000
Subject: Letter

Louis Maha.
Manager, Internal Audit/
Foreign Remittance Dept,
Union Bank Plc,
36 Broad Street,
Victoria Island, Lagos.

Dear,

My name is Louis Maha , An account officer to late Mr. Craig Jones who use
to work for an oil firm in Nigeria. Mr Craig Jones a well known
Philanthropist,before he died, he made a WILL stating that $15.2M (Fifteen
million, two hundred thousand U.S. dollars only) should be donated to any
Philanthropist of our choice oversea and your email was randomly picked as
the beneficiary of the said funds.
I got your contact through our international trade commissiom and commerce
hence I want you can become beneficiary of this Will. I am particularly
interested in securing his money from the Bank, because they have issued a
notice instructing me being the account officer to produce the beneficiary
of this Will within few weeks or else the money will be credited to the
Government treasury as per law here. It is my utmost desire to execute the
WILL of my late client as was instructed when he was a life.
You are required to contact me immediately to start the process of sending
this money to any of your designated official account or your off-shore
account. I urge you to contact me immediately for further details bearing in
mind that the Bank has given me a date limit,act fast.Please include your
phone and fax numbers as you are replying this mail.

Congratulation as I await your urgent reply.

Yours faithfully,

Louis Maha.


Anti-fraud resources: