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: "Mrs. Elizabeth Wildason" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <elizabeth.wildason@hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:10:55 +0100
Subject: re: Wildason

Good day,
 
My name is Mrs. Elizabeth Wildason, I am terminally ill and have decided to donate my inheritance from my husband to you. Regarding how I got your personal details, it is via the internet with the help of the nurse assigned to attend to me in my private ward here in the hospital, under my direction because I cannot surf on my own due to partial stroke.
 
It may interest you to know that I am 51 years old and have been diagnosed of acute cancer for about 2 years now, shortly after the death of my husband, which made me hypertensive and resulted in stroke. I feel over-powered by gloom and despair and saw nothing but death lurking around. All these are my reasons for deciding on using anything in my name for charity in which co-incidentally you have been favoured as the beneficiary.
 
I have decided to donate my inheritance to a stranger instead of my husband's relatives because they are such that it will amount to betrayal of my late husband if I let them have his hard-laboured fortune and enjoy it, despite how they mistreated me after the demise of my late husband under my very nose.I will expect that you will as is about doing to you this day do to the lives of others, for life is better lead on the philosophy of give and take. I will advise that you don't see this windfall as avenue for pleasure spree but should see it as an opportunity to build and grow your personal finances to an enviable level and help others.
 
Please note that to avoid my husband's relatives who spy around me and because of my health condition I shall not entertain phone calls and conversations. If you are sure that you will use the donated fund as I have advised here, contact my Lawyer Barr. Marcos Gaitan (Email: marcosgaitan@live.co.uk) to help you arrange the transfer of the fund to your account and furnish him with the details as I included below for verification of informations on the Limited Power of Attorney issued to him on your behalf so that all the paperwork in your name can be processed as soon as possible, so as to facilitate the transfer;
 
Full Names:
Address:
Telephone number:
Age:
Gender:
Occupation:
 
You should give him your cooperation so that he can assists you fully in the processing and remittance of your donation/bequest.
 
All the best!
Mrs. Elizabeth Wildason

Anti-fraud resources: