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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: "King, Natasha J" <nking12@mail.nccu.edu>
Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 23:14:44 -0400
Subject: **** Please Don't Be Tempted To Ignore***

Good Day,
I am Mr Mark Greg the senior branch Manager of Natwest Bank in the UK.I am contacting you to assist in the claim of some outstanding fund which was left by one of my very good client Christian Eich who died in a AF4590 plane crash on his way to America.
He was an engineer with one construction firms here in London.He left no known next of kin and all our attempts to trace someone related to him to whom we could pay the money have met a dead end.I have now personally decided to contact you if you can assist me on behalf of the family to act his next of kin.Using my influence as a senior Manager of this bank i will present all necessary document with the help of a lawyer to that effect so you have nothing to worry about. The amount involved is USD 15 million ( Fifteen million United States Dollars) which is the account balance. This money will be shared in the ration below. 50% for me ,45% for you and the balance 5% will be used for any expences incurred.You can view the website for more details on the full incident how it occured.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm
At the end of the transaction the fund will be shared thus 50% for me,45% for you the the balance 5% for any expense incurred.I look forward to hearing from you with your full name and address and contact phone number asap. You are to contact me via my most confidential email address below :
mark.greg02@hotmail.com
Yours faithfully,
Mr Mark Greg.

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