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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.

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

Fraud email example:

From: "Dr andrew nelson" <soso7000bigt@hotmail.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: andrew_nelson77@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2007 00:38:44 +0000
Subject: SEEKING FOR HELP

Dear Sir/Madam,
First and foremost I would like to apologize for infringing on your privacy by sending you an unsolicited email, I decided to contact you via an email to get us acquainted since it is a safer way of private communication. If you must know, I came about your contact information through a chamber of commerce and industry directory on the Internet

I am Dr andrew nelson the account officer of Emmanuel son of Charles Taylor the rebel leader in Liberia , ousted during the Liberian war crisis by the opposition group.
I am now residing in Banjul, The Gambia with a box he left behind containing physical cash Which he safely deposited in a security vault during his father’s regime in the office and now I need a foreign business man or woman who may stand as my guardian and benefactor to this fund by acting as my foreign partner so that I can retrieve the money from the security company and transfer it to the person's foreign bank account for safe keeping and proper investment to secure my future as I have all the documentation to this effect.

Firstly, before I will disclose the said amount to you, I must solicit your strictest confidence in this transaction. This is by virtue of its nature as being utterly confidential. I am sure and have confidence of your ability and reliability to prosecute a transaction of this great magnitude. I solicit your assistance to enable us transfer the said amount into your safe account for onward investment. You can either provide us with an existing account or to set up a new bank account immediately to receive this money, even an empty bank account can serve to receive this money, as long as you will remain honest to me till the end for this important business trusting in you and believing that you will never let me down either now or in future.
As soon as I hear from you, and upon your strong assurance that you will not let me down once the fund goes into your account I will then start to process the transfer of the fund to your account without further delay.
If interested contact me urgently for further details. andrew_nelson77@yahoo.co.uk <mailto:andrew_nelson77@yahoo.co.uk>


Yours Faithfully,

Dr andrew nelson



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