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: "paul silas" <paulsilas5@msn.com>
Reply-To: paulsilas2@myway.com
Date: Thu, 03 Nov 2005 09:39:17 +0000
Subject: FROM PAUL SILAS

INVESTMENT

You may be surprised to receive my letter, however,I
have decided to contact you for confidential, Urgent
and rewardingjoint business.
My name is MR paul silas , I was a PersonalAssistant
to the
Late Congo President, LAURENT KABILA, whowas
assasinated in February
2001 and my aim of writing to you isbecause of the
need for a
trusted and honest person, who I can entrustthe sum
of
US$18,800,000(Eighteen million), eight hundred
thousand USDollars).
Source of the money: I and the late presidentsecured
this money in a security firm in Ghana, in my name
before hisdeath. Now that he is late, I want to
transfer the money out of Africa,for investment
in your country, I can not travel out of Nigeria where
I am on asylum, hence I am asking for your assistance
to have thismoney in your care pending when I will
secure travel documents to comeover to your country.
If you accept this offer we shall share the moneyas
follows: for you, 20%, 80% for me. I have all the
title documentsto the fund which I can transfer to
you to enable you have assess toit. Be assured that
is risk-free and legitimate. Please advise me onyour
position by e-mail
Immediately, indicating your phone and faxnumbers.
Your quick response will be highly appreciated.
Regards.
MR paul silas.


Anti-fraud resources: