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: Eric Owusu <eric_owu@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 6 Mar 2009 10:17:07 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Dr Eric Owusu



ATTN 
 
l am a staff of one of the leading banks in Africa I am writing asking for your indulgence in re-profiling funds, which we want to keep under your supervision. The Funds totaling($6,900,000)
I am only contacting you as a foreigner because this fund cannot be approved to a local Bank here, Because the funds are in US Dollars. belonging to one Mr. Morris Thompson, an American nationality, A businessman, he died since 2000 in an air crash along his family .
You can confirm from this website:
http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/
No other person knows about this account or anything concerning it. The account has no other beneficiary and my investigation proved to me as well that his company does not know anything about his account. The Strategy is to use my influence as his account manager to approve the funds in your name.
If you are interested, forward to me your Name's, CellPhone/fax,Profession,Age and Country, so I can contact you. For more details
Get back to me
Regards.
Dr Eric Owusu
 



Anti-fraud resources: