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: Stanley Khumalo <stanleykhumalo@gmail.com>
Reply-To: khumalostanley@live.com
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:50:33 +0700
Subject: Best Regards


Dearest one,

Greetings!
In the name of Almighty God , and may His Grace continue to abide in your house hold as you open your heart in helping me out of this unbearable situation of my family. I oblige you to give this Godly help for the Almighty God will reward you in abundance.
I know this mail might seem very surprising to you or probably against your personal ethics and principles as we have met each other before , but right about now I still believe that the Good Lord that has laid it to me to write you will always make room in your heart to help me.
I am Stanley Khumalo, the only son of late Mr. and Mrs. Smith Khumalo. My father was a very wealthy cocoa merchant in Harare, the economic capital of Zimbabwe, my father died during the political war crisis that is going on in my country Zimbabwe )My mother died when I was a baby when she was about to deliver a new baby and since then my father took me so special.
My Father died due to the injuries he sustained from the supporters of President Robert Mugabe who invaded our farm and burnt everything, killing two of my father's the workers and left my father unconscious. My father's opposition to the the present government's land use decree prone the attack. in which the the government claim all the white owned farms to their party members and followers and perhaps the white farmers are also intimidated to surrender their farms to their black counter parts who are mostly the president's party members .
Before the death of my father on November 2008 in a private hospital here in Johannesburg he secretly called me on his bed side and told me that he has the sum of twenty Million, Five Hundred Thousand United State Dollars. USD ($20,500,000) left in one of the private security/finances trust services house here in South Africa, deposited as family treasures and that he used my names his only son for the next of kin in depositing of the fund. He also explained to me that he might not survive the situation he was at that present.
However That I should seek for a foreign partner in a country of my choice where I will transfer this money and use it for investment purpose such as real estate management or hotel management.
Sir, I am in a sincere desire of your humble assistance in this regards again. Your suggestions and ideas will be highly regarded. Now permit me to ask these few questions:-
(1)Can you help me for the retrievements of this fund on my behalf in the security bank custody here to your end?
(2)Can you make an arrangement for me to come over to your country to further my Education and to secure a resident permit in your country?
(3) Can you honestly take me as your own and help me?
(4) Can I completely trust you?
(5) What percentage of the total amount in question will be good for you after the money is in your account? Please, consider this and get back to me as soon as possible so that i can forward the documents to you after we have agreed on the conditions for your assistance. I am waiting for your urgent response with your contact phone number for more effective comunication and i will forward you the contact details of the security company for you to contact them as you my guardian. And in due course I will provide you the all the legal documents that covers the fund at my disposal once you are ready to come on my behalf.Please if you find it in your heart please do return my mail .
Thank you so much.
Best Regards,
Stanley Khumalo.

Anti-fraud resources: