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: Mr Ericjons <ericjones9@virgilio.it>
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 13:25:43 +0200
Subject: Hellow

Good Day,
My name is Mr Eric Jones ,chairman of contract award and monitoring
committee of the ministry of industry and international trade
development ,my duty as empowered by the Mauritius government is to
provide the basic amenities, social recreational activities in urban
and rural areas.
This program includes assistance to deprived local communities and to
co-ordinate projects and development at the national
level.Furthermore,from this projects were able to realize some
reasonable amount of u.s.$21.8(Twenty one million eight hundred
thousand US. dollars only) as commission from various contractors
resulting from over invoicing of payment receipts/vouchers hence all
the necessary approvals has been completed.
These approved funds were packaged and dispatched through a security
company for onward delivery to its destination in Europe.The money was
first deposited into a security vault before we arrange for its
movement to Europe through diplomatic channel using decoy purporting
that the fund belongs to an expatriate/company.
As we are government officials, the oath of office does are not allowed
us to operate foreign bank account,hence we need you to stand as the
beneficiary and claim the fund on our behalf from the security company.
Presently I am now in Europe to search for a reliable person/company of
high integrity /dignity and one with conscience who will claim this
fund on our behalf as the beneficiary.
We have agreed to give you 30% of the total sum as commission for your
assistance/effort and 5% will be used to settle every expenses
incurred, we will use 65%to invest under your recommendation/guide and
go into joint venture business with you .
I would greatly appreciate your assistance and I look forward to your
response as soon as possible through this e mail

Best regards,
Mr Eric Jones
0031633775038
ericjon1000@netscape.net

Anti-fraud resources: