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: "WILLIAM COLGATE II" <info1@meeekinh.com>
Reply-To: williamcolgatel@yahoo.it
Date: Sat, 08 Sep 2007 02:01:43 +0000
Subject: HELLO,


HELLO,

I'm William Colgate II, an Executive Member of the Audit and
Compensation Committee of ExxonMobil in London
(http://www.exxonmobil.com)I have a sensitive and private brief
from the Senior Executives of this top oil company in need of your
partnership to re-profile funds amounting to US$12.2M (Twelve
million Two Hundred Thousand United States Dollars). I will let
you have the details, but in summary, the fund would be paid to
you through a Finance Company where it is presently deposited as
soon as the filing and documentation process is concluded in your
name.

This is a legitimate transaction without government interference
and you shall be compensated with 20% of the total sum, should you
and your company agrees to work with us.If you are interested,
please reply here (williamcolgatel@yahoo.it) for further details.

Warm Regards,

William Colgate II.


Anti-fraud resources: