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: John Osilamah <johnosilamah@hotmail.co.uk>
Reply-To: <johnosilamah@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2007 21:18:33 -0400
Subject: Hello



Barrister JOHN OSILAMAHEQUITY CHAMBERS & CO. Address: 28 Probyn RoadIkoyi Lagos Nigeria. Dear Sir/Madam, I am Barrister JOHN OSILAMAH of EQUITY CHAMBERS & CO.This mail is written and intended to solicit your assistance to be presented as NEXT OF KIN to my Late Client. My Deceased Client Richard Burson, (77, Venice Isles FL,USA) He made a fixed Deposit of Funds valued at USD 8M (Eight Million United States Dollars Only)with a Bank here in Nigeria.Unfortunately lost his life abroad Egypt Air Flight 990, which crashed in to the Atlantic Ocean on October 31st,1999(news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/502503.stm) and left no clear beneficiary as Next of Kin except some vital documents related to the Deposit still with me. All efforts by me to trace his Next of Kin proved abortive because he did not make any will prior to his death. The Governing Body of the BANK has contacted me on this matter and I am yet to provide the Next of Kin to lay claims to the Fund. Under a clear and legitimate agreement with you,I shall seek your consent to be presented as the next of Kin so that my late client's fund will not be confiscated by the BANK or to be misused by corrupt government officials.I propose a sharing formula of 50/50 if you will agree to stand in as the next of kin and have the funds deposited into any account that you will provide. Please make available to me your Phone numbers and fax, your full names and address, your job description and title so that i can get started with the documentations. Thank you very much for your anticipated co-operation. Yours faithfully, Barrister John Osilamah.
_________________________________________________________________
Discover the new Windows Vista
http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=windows+vista&mkt=en-US&form=QBRE

Anti-fraud resources: