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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: johnowenarts@zipmail.com.br
Date: Thu, 4 May 2006 00:03:17 +0200
Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Your=20Attention=20Needed?=

Hello,
My name is John Owen and I am an artist. I live in United Kingdom, with
my two kids, four cats, one dog and the love of my life. It is definitely
a full house. I majored in art in high school and took a few college art
courses. Most of my work is done in either pencil or airbrush mixed with
color pencils. I have recently added designing and creating artwork on the
computer. I have been selling my art for the last 4 years and have had my
work featured on trading cards, prints and in magazines. I have sold in
galleries and to private collectors from all around the world.

With due regards to you, I am contacting you in confidence to assist me
in fulfilling an obligation on behalf of my late customer, Mr. James H.Browne
(An American) who died together with his wife and two kids during the Hurricane
Katrina disaster that affected the Gulf Coast of New Orleans.

He was a successful businessman, humble and honesty. His wife and their
two kids, Mary and Peter reside in their family house along the Gulf Coast
of New Orleans where he joined the family after his last transaction with
me.
Unfortunately, it was during this time that he met his untimely death in
New Orleans together with his family as the Hurricane Katrina took them
by surprise.

During our business transactions, I assisted him to deposit of US$10.6M(Ten
Million Six Hundred Thousand US Dollars) in a security company here in United
Kingdom, which I will disclose to you.

Since his death, I always face serious difficulties when it comes to selling
my art works to Americans.
I am looking for a company/individual who will Stand as Next of Kin to get
these Funds out from the security company. I will give 35% of the total
Funds to you. But the problem I have is trust, If you are interested, contact
me to my private email address;
Johnowen3960@fastermail.com.

Regards
John Owen.






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