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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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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "CHRIS SPENCER" <cspencer1960612@walla.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: chris1960612@myway.com
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2006 17:12:32 +0000
Subject: WILL YOU ASSIST




Dear Partner,

I am writing on behalf of a client of our bank , who died after winning the lottery.He won $5,000,000.00
(Five Million US Dollars) After hearing the good news he had a stroke,He is a foreigner. I decided to seek
for whom his name shall be used as the next of kin as no one has come up to be the next of kin.

A foreigner in the sense that you do not live in Lome-Togo.He was 77 years old and he has no relative.
Now the funds are left unclaimed for, If it is not claimed now it will be handed to the government as
unclaimed funds. I want you to claim for the funds as a relative, i will give you the winning lottery number
and the other details and you will send it to the bank as the next of kin. I am a worker at the bank and i will
send all the details to your email, we will share the total funds 50/50.I and my partners,will share $2.5 million dollars.

You will take the rest for your work and assistance.The whole process will be done in a day. It just takes 24hrs.
We want to use our share of the funds as an investment. Once i hear a postive response from you i will furnish
you with all the other details.Please leave your full name and contact details so that i can contact you back.
The most important thing is that can i trust you and that you wont let us down? If you are interested,send me an
email so that we can begin.

This business is risk free.Thank you

Respectfully submitted,
Mr Chris Spencer

Anti-fraud resources: