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: =?utf-8?q?Harry=20Fobbs?= <fobbs.harry@yahoo.com.ve>
Reply-To: harry.fobbs@yahoo.com.ve
Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2008 15:54:41 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Special Investigation Bureau (SCID)


¡Tengo nueva dirección de correo!Ahora puedes escribirme a:fobbs.harry@yahoo.com.ve



- it has come to our notice through our online security service that a huge amount of United States Dollars was scheduled to be remitted into your bank account a few months ago. We have been mandated to step into your transaction and put a STOP ORDER pending until you revert to us for clarification why your money is been delayed more than is necessary, notice as your payment is causing so much embarrassment to our government and global financial Institutions who repose so much trust in the British banking sector for competence and accountability. Inspector Harry Fobbs.


Anti-fraud resources: