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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

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

Fraud email example:

From: "Walter Dozie" <walterdozie@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 06:32:50 -0900
Subject: REPLY SWIFT

Dear Sir/Ma,

We are bankers wanting to invest through a free willed fund and for which
you stands to benefit from it immensely. About $15M is to be invested upon
and for which you shall get 30% of the total fund which shall be
authomatically transferred into your account.

This business as you can see is risk free and calls for your understanding
and due co-operation at all time for the successful transfer of the fund
into your account. There are no charges or an upfront payment to be made by
you in this transaction since all logistics has been put in place for a
success transfer of the fund into your account.

On this note however, it is imperative for me to informing you that
actually, there are some charges payable before this fund can be transferred
permanently into your account and for which we have all taken it into
consideration and have made provisions for that. You shall be required to
open an online savings account with Barclays bank where we can transfer some
money into the accounts to be opened for the payment of the necessary
charges.

Once the account is opened, the fund that will be used for the payment of
the charges will be wired into the account with the above mentioned bank and
which you shall later transfer back to us for the charges which we shall pay
on your behalf here.

Please endeavour to get back to me as soon as you openb the account.

Warmest Regards.

Mr.Mark Smith.


Anti-fraud resources: