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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.

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 Grace Douglas" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <gracedouglas.mrs@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 17 Feb 2010 19:08:31 +0100
Subject: Payment Update

Attn: Beneficiary,
 
After a serious thought, I decided to reach you directly and personally because I do not have anything against you, but rather your partners.I am Mrs Grace Douglas the Director of the United Nations monitoring unit on African  Debt payment. your African partners approached me through a friend of mine, who works with a commercial bank and requested that I help them conclude a money transfer deal, since they know that international transfer of this magnitude are handled by my unit alone. They gave me all your personal and banking information  and told me to feed it into the payment system for immediate payment clearance and approval so that it will appear as if you are one of the genuine contractors/Inheritance beneficiaries that have been cleared for payment. According to them,
 
My verification into this matter proved that this is a strategy  to transfer a huge sum of money running into millions of dollars and this money has been floating and pending for payment till this moment of my writing you.
 
. It was an agreement that once I help do this,they would give me the sum of US$100,000.00 as soon as the money is finally released into your account they give me balance of $1,000,000.00. When they saw that I had done this, and your name approved amongst the list of beneficiaries to be paid, instead of giving me the agreed deposit of US$ 100,000.00, they stated avoiding me and resorted to threat. I immediately depose the related documents for this payment, which is only known to me because of my position, while other contractors/Inheritance beneficiaries funds were released without yours. They got more vexed, when they discovered that their threat did not work, they resorted to bribing other officials to get another approval to transfer the money to you without success.I am 100% responsible for this delay and obstruction because of their disappointment in our agreement.Where you doubt what I have told you, pay any amount they will ask you t o pay now, after a short while,th
 
1. I will have 30% of the money because it is only the two of us that is left for now.
 
2. You will assist my son to open account in your country or any other place of my choice where I will pay in my Share.
 
3. As you have seen, it will be useless and a waste of time and money if you continue with any other person, knowing that actually this money does not belong to you either.
 
4.  i assist you to arrange and secure an internationalloan for you if it become necessary for any upfront payment Prior to the advancement of this payment, but you are to send me a Promissory note to guarantee me of my 30% towards the release of this fund So, we would conclude this with utmost secrecy via my personal information.The above information has been responsible for the non-payment of this funds but no body was in a position to educate you.If you are interested to claim this fund, kindly let me know as quickly as possible to enable me secure and activate your name amongst the contractors/Inheritance beneficiaries to be paid for this first quarter financial fiscal year 2010 payment. If you accept these conditions, this payment would be concluded within 14 working days. Where these conditions are acceptable by you, contact me as soon as possible to let us finalize so that I can open up to you on how we can get this funds receive d into your bank account. But wer
 
I await your urgent response
 
Yours Sincerely,
 
Mrs Grace Douglas

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