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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: "Anthony Cortese" <anthonycortese4@gmail.com>
Reply-To: <anthonycortese0@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:28:22 +0800
Subject: REPLY URGENTLY

My name is Anthony Cortese I am an American soldier, I am serving in the military of the 1st Armored Division in Iraq ,I am still in iraq at moment and want to seek your consent at the mean time, I and my superior moved funds found in container and was oppurtuned to be among the officer sent to monitor the shifting and counting of this fund and we moved from the total some of the fund up to $5,000,000.00 (Five million US dollars) this money is being kept safe in a Finance Treasure keeping Company. Click on this link to read about event that took place here:-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2988455.stm
Eze Chiebonam:
Basically since we are working for the government we cannot keep these funds, but we want to transfer and move the funds to you, so that you can keep it for us in your safe account or an offshore account.
We will divide the total funds in three ways, since we are 3 that are involved. This means that you will take 20%, I will take 30%, and my superior will take 40%. 10% will be kept aside for expenses. This business is confidential, and it should not be discussed with anyone as my superior don't want to get invove directly. There is no risk involved whatsoever. If you are interested I will send you the full details, my job is to find a good partner that we can trust and that will assist us. REPLY URGENTLY

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