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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: Eric Nguessan <nguesseric1986@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <e_nguessan@yahoo.ca>
Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2007 08:59:55 +0200
Subject: From: Eric and Elizabeth Nguessan.



From: Eric and Elizabeth Nguessan.Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. Dear respectful, I sincerely hope that this letter will not come to you as a surprise or an embarrassment since we neither knew each other before nor had any neither previous correspondence nor contact. Let me start by introducing myself, my name is Eric Nguessan and my sister Elizabeth Nguessan; we are from Cote d'Ivoire. Our parents, Chief & Mrs. Thomas Nguessan (late) were very wealthy Gold/Ivory merchants based in Abidjan, capital of Cote d'Ivoire. Recently, on their return from a business trip in Bangkok to negotiate on business deal, they were attacked by some unknown assassins, unfortunately our mother died instantly while our father was taken to a specialist hospital where he died few days after.Before he (my father) finally gave up ghost, he called me on his bed-side as his only son and disclosed to me confidentially of this US$12.5M cash deposit he made with one of the commercial banks in Abidjan, for onward transfer abroad for our proposed family investment.He urged me with urgency to go to his personal underground safe in our family villa to collect to my custody all the depository documents covering the fund fund in the bank, then quickly look for a trustworthy foreign investor who shall not betray us, to help us transfer the money overseas for investment in any lucrative business of our choice for our future welfare. Now, the funeral of our late parents is over and we have choosing you with confidence to be our foreign business partner, in order to guide us through an investment opportunities in your Country and to help us transfer the US$12.5M to your personal/company bank account for investment in your country. Please, on your acceptance to help us, we will be very glad to receive your reply as soon as possible. Thanks & God bless you. Eric and Elizabeth Nguessan.
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