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: "Mark Fazzina" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mark_fazzina52@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:32:31 -0800
Subject: Urgent Reply Needed

My Dear,

I am Evangelist Mark Fazzina, I am 69 years old; suffering from long time cancer. From all indications, my condition is really deteriorating and is quite obvious that I may not live more than six months, because the cancer Stage has gotten to a very severe stage.

My wife died in a fatal motor accident. Before her death we were true Christians and since his death I decided not to re-marry,I need someone to help. As I write you today I have sent US$6,000,000.00 Million to green hill motherless kids home. The US$6,000,000.00 Million is ok for the kids in Spain.
I have few months to leave as my doctor said but US$12,500,000.00 Million is remaining in my bank deposit for charity and homeless kids.

Can you help? If you can, you can have 30% of the US$12,500,000.00 Million for your family and business investment but I want you to give part to the homeless kids.
As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of the Bank for the cheque to be post to you.

Yours in Christ,
Evang Mark Fazzina

Anti-fraud resources: