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: "DR JAMES COY" <james_coy11@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:03:37 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: *****SPAM***** I AM WAITING YOUR RESPOND TODAY IS VERY IMPORTANT.


Spam detection software, running on the system "radius2.beosms.com", has
identified this incoming email as possible spam. The original message
has been attached to this so you can view it (if it isn't spam) or label
similar future email. If you have any questions, see
the administrator of that system for details.

Content preview: Hello, I'm DR JAMES COY, a representative of Prudential company
here in Nigeria Africa 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$45M (fourty-five Million 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 for further details. Regards, DR
JAMES COY [...]

Content analysis details: (9.3 points, 8.0 required)

pts rule name description
---- ---------------------- --------------------------------------------------
-1.8 ALL_TRUSTED Passed through trusted hosts only via SMTP
3.5 BAYES_99 BODY: Bayesian spam probability is 99 to 100%
[score: 1.0000]
2.1 SUBJ_ALL_CAPS Subject is all capitals
1.3 MISSING_HEADERS Missing To: header
1.5 MILLION_USD BODY: Talks about millions of dollars
1.2 ADVANCE_FEE_2 Appears to be advance fee fraud (Nigerian 419)
1.4 ADVANCE_FEE_3 Appears to be advance fee fraud (Nigerian 419)



Anti-fraud resources: