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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: Dav Gordon <goda_10@msn.com>
Reply-To: <d.gord2@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2008 22:28:59 +0000
Subject: ARE YOU THERE??



Don't be offended to receive this mail, which is sent without your prior permission since we do not know each other before. Meanwhile am a lawyer here in UK, One of my client who has a deposit with Berkeley Safe Deposit Co. Ltd: www.berkeleysafes.com died in an auto crash. The Company has issued me a notice to provide the next of kin within the next 14 official working days or the deposit declared unserviceable and confiscated.
This project is simple. All I require is your honesty and full co-operation. I guarantee that this business will be done under legitimate process, from your response I shall then provide you with more details that will help you to understand the transaction more, and be rest assured that this transaction would be most profitable for both of us if kept confidential by both party. All my efforts to trace the family relatives of the deceased so that the funds will be released to them, I made several efforts though the High Commissions to contact any of the deceased family relatives, but to no avail, and I have decided to contact you to act as the next of kin by assisting in repatriating the hard earn money of the deceased. I seek your consent to work as a team to use this hard earn money of the deceased to propagate good works in our communities by donating to charity homes, widow's etc and still have enough that will take good care of us and our family for better tomorrow because if I leave it with the company it will be confiscated.
I have proofs of this box at hand if you need it. I will stop here until I receive your positive response.
Yours truly,
David Gordon.
31 Ashness Road London SW11 6RY

Anti-fraud resources: