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.

 

 

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

Fraud email example:

From: Victor Joseph <victorjoseph_0@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: victor_joseph0@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 03:55:10 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL....




DEAR SIR,

MANY THANKS TO YOU FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION TOWARDS MY PROBLEM ,KNOWING TOO WELL THAT THIS IS THE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH.

WELL,I AM VERY SORRY FOR YOUR MISFORTUNE IN THE HANDS OF WEST AFRICAN HOODLUMS AND FRAUDSTERS.

BUT,ALL I AM SAYING IS THE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH,YOU CAN STILL COMFIRM THE NEWS IN WEBSITE(WWW.CNN.COM ) ,THEN YOU WILL UNDERSTAND PROPERLY HOW MY PARENTS DIED IN THE TSUNAMI DISASTER. LAST TWO YEARS.

NB: JUST FEEL FREE TO ASK ANY QUESTION YOU MAY WISH TO KNOW AND I PROMISE TO GET BACK TO YOU IMMEDIATELY.

I WANT YOU TO GIVE ME YOUR PRIVATE PHONE NUMBER,SO THAT I WILL CALL YOU OVER THE PHONE.


THANKS FOR NOW AND GOD BLESS YOU,

I WISH YOU ALL THE BEST,

YOURS TRULY,

VICTOR JOSEPH.


---------------------------------
How low will we go? Check out Yahoo! Messenger’s low PC-to-Phone call rates.

Anti-fraud resources: