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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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Vlad Vikenti" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mmiroslav@sify.com>
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 2009 20:28:26 -0800
Subject: Hello

Dear Friend,
I have a profiling sum in an excess of $25M which I seek your partnership in accommodating. The documents of the above funds in question were handed over to me by my boss Mr. Mikhail Khodorkovsky for safe keeping. The said funds have been in fixed deposit for five years in a Bank in the United Kingdom (name of the Bank undisclosed for now), my boss got involved in politics especially financing the leading and opposing political parties. Please reply if interested, I will give you more details, your role, how legal and genuine this transaction is and as we progress you shall see all the legal documents.
Yours truly,
Mr Vlad Vikenti.

Anti-fraud resources: