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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.

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)
Date: Sat, 1 Nov 2008 09:35:29 +0000
Subject: From Madam Avelin Regato


Dear Respected One

My name is Madam Avelin Regato . A complete citizen of the Philippines,widow
to the late Mr Desmond Regato who died of ulcer and he has been buried.

I inherited a total sum of 12.3 million dollars from my late husband, this
money which is concealed in a metallic trunk box is deposited with a
security and finance company in Cote D' Ivoire Due to the instruction he
laid down before he deposited the box, that he needed maximum
security/safety of my consignment and no body nor government organization
can trace where about of the box until were ready and prepare to claim it.

This deposit was coded under a secret arrangement as a family treasure.This
means that the security company does not know the content of this trunk box.

My main purpose of sending you this mail is because of the way I found you
and perhaps trustworthy to give you this priority of shipping the box of
money to any address that you think is very secure and save in your country
with your percentage of which we shall chat on soon.

In fact, since the death of my husband, his brothers has been seriously
chasing me around with constant treats, trying to suppress me so that they
might have the documents of his landed properties and confiscate them. They
have successfully collected all his properties, yet they never stopped
there, they told me to surrender all bank account of my late husband,which I
did, but I never disclose to them this deposit with the security company in
Abidjan- Cote d'Ivoire, because this is where my future and destiny lies
upon.

The family of my late husband never aware of the secret existence of this
deposit which my late husband made with the security company and they can
never be aware of it.

Out of fear of my late husbands family, and when the situation becomes
uncontrollable because of pressure on me from the family, I decide to look
for a trustworthy person who could assist me retrieve this box of money from
the security company for onward lodgement into his account for the purpose
of future investment.Consider my situation as a widow and come to my rescue.

There is need for urgent action because I'm paying $50 dollars per day as a
demurrage to the security company for safe keeping this consignment.

I give thanks immensely for your co-operation as I look forward to hear from
you soon.
All the best,
Madam Avelin Regato

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