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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: "Mariam" <uduo_mariam1@yahoo.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: mariam_uduo19@yahoo.com
Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2008 12:33:10 +0100
Subject: I Need Your Help

Dear Sir/Ma,

Good day,how are you and how is your family?hope fine?i am so sorry to disturb you at this time,i know that i have not met you in the past but please for the sake of God give this letter a serious attention, i am so depressed and need to share my worries with someone whom i feel can assist me,my name is Mariam Uduo from Dafur Sudan,i am presently under political asylum here in Dakar-Senegal as a political refugee and living in the refugee camp,there is something very important that i wish to share with you and believe you can assist me,i have an inherittance deposit of 10 Million 5 Hundred Thousand American dollars which my late father kept under his name, and i am his next of kin and now the money is my inherittance since he is now late,now i am seeking that you assist me to get the money released and transferred to a foreign bank account in any country.

my late father when he was alife he was a business man in Sudan our country,he was killed in the ongoing war in my country with the rest of my family,since then i have been an orphan and alone with my kid brother,now that i am grown i want your help to get my inheritance from the bank and to start a new life,in his personal file i saw the document covering the ownership of the money with the bank,so i had to take them along with me as i ran into this country for my dear life,i have approached the bank several times but they need me to provide my foreign representative person with a foreign bank account before they will release and transfer the money,they told me that my late father made an agreement with them that the money is for investment and should only be transferred to a foreign bank account.
I need your assistance and believe you will be able to assist me.I hope to meet you in real and hope you will not let me down in the future if you decide to assist me.my <http://me.my/> greetings to your family, God bless you amen.Please send me your reply on (mariam_uduo17@yahoo.com <mailto:mariam_uduo17@yahoo.com>)

Yours sincerely,
Mariam Uduo


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