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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: "maria stevens" <mstevenz52@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: mstevenx00039@yahoo.com
Date: Tue, 03 Oct 2006 10:12:05 -0700
Subject: can you assist me?

My Dear Friend

This letter might come to you as a surprise as we have
not met before,but I believe that you would be
compelled to help me after going through the contents
of this letter. My name is Maria Del Carmen stevens a
swedish,my meeting with Mr David Yendall Stevens in
south africa led us into marriage. my husband Mr David
stevens who is now late farmer and exporter of
Tobacco in the Republic of zimbabwe,he was shot dead
allegedly by ZANU-PF supporters in zimbabwe on 25th of
april 2000 in the farm. You can confirm this by
copying and pasting this link on your internet
browser.or click on it:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/725643.stm,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/818766.stm


He (Robert Mugabe) did not stop at that; he also went
on to expel all White farmers in Zimbabwe. He implored
the services of his war veterans to undertake this
seizure. The war veterans have been accused
(correctly) of being behind the violent occupation of
white-owned commercial farms in which an estimated
70,000 farm workers have been displaced. At least,
over hundreds white farmers and black settlers have
been killed since the farm invasions began in February
2000.We have decided that we must see this problem to
the end.

Although we know that we are taking a great risk by
staying here in Zimbabwe. At the Moment, our phone
lines are bugged, and all our movements are being
monitored by Zimbabwe’s (Robert Mugabe4s)secret
Police. Therefore email is the safest means of
communication for now. We (White farmers in Zimbabwe)
have taken our case to the United Nations and even
with the threats of transactions and the subsequent
sanctions from the West against the Zimbabwean
Authorities, Robert Mugabe (The president of Zimbabwe)
still remains adamant. He is insisting that our farm
land (some of which we bought with our money and most
of which We inherited from our fathers) belongs to the
(his) government of Zimbabwe.the government of
zimbabwe has asked all white-farmers to give up their
farms to black farmers or risk going to prison. So
far, more than 1,400 white owned farms have been
invaded and confiscated, as well as claiming the
properties of the farmers.Also,about 133 white farmers
were arrested for defying the orders to leave their
farms under the controversial land reform program of
the government,


Since I could not keep the money in Zimbabwe, I used
the services of a Diplomatic Courier Company to move
this money (registered as official documents) out of
Zimbabwe to Europe. At present, my money totaling
US$28,750,000. (Twenty eight million, seven hundred
and fifty thousand United States Dollars) is in Europe
and hopefully, it would be paid into an offshore
account. Can you help me? Are you trustworthy? Can you
handle this money? Are you capable of handling this
money? If you can, please contact me All you need to
do is to claim this money from the Courier Company.

You will be required to contact the Courier Company
that moved this money (official documents) out of
Zimbabwe and to Europe. All necessary particulars
which can facilitate and enable you claim the money on
my behalf will be forwarded to you as soon as your
consent to proceed is received. For! your assistance,
you will be entitled to 20% of the total sum. You are
also obliged to help/advise on the proper and most
convenient way of investing this money in your
country, Hopefully, You will consider this request and
respond positively.

Yours Sincerely,
Maria Stevens

_________________________________________________________________
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