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: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: <russell.privatebox@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 02:12:42 +0000
Subject: Transfer Of Funds.



















From Russell Picot.P O Box 10720217 Strand London WC2R 1AP My Request. I have a very important request that make me to contact you, I am RussellPicot, I found your profile very interesting and decided to reach you directlyto solicit your assistance and guidelines in making a business investment andtransfer of £12.5M GBP (Twelve Million Five Hundred thousand poundsSterling) to your country within the next few days. I presently work as a Chief Auditor, Offshore Mortgage & Services withNatwest Bank Plc, London Branch. But at this moment, I am constrained to issuemore details about this profitable business investment until I get your responseby mail. Please take out a moment of your very busy schedule today to respondback if you are interested, please send your direct telephone numbers throughthis email (r_picot@walla.com) for an initial confidential communication. I wishfor utmost confidentiality in handling this transaction. Awaiting your reply, Russell Picot.Chief Auditor.

Anti-fraud resources: