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: "Lt. John Brown" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <lt.johnbrown1956@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 02:41:16 +0100
Subject: Good day to you,

Good day to you,
 
I know you would be surprised to read from someone relatively unknown to
you. My name is Lt. John Brown a member of the U.S. ARMY USARPAC Medical
Team, which was deployed to Iraq at the beginning of the war in Iraq.
 
I would like to share some highly personal classified information about my
personal experience and role which I played in the pursuit of my career
serving under the U.S 1st Armored which was at the fore-front of the war in
Iraq.
 
Though, I would like to hold back certain information for security reasons
for now until you have found the time to visit the BBC website which I shall
email to you once I receive your response confirming your interest to know
more about my intentions regarding the proposal that I wish to detail to
you, to enable you have an insight as to what I'm intending to share with
you believing that it would be of your desired interest one-way or the
other.
I must say that I'm very uncomfortable sending this message to you without
knowing truly if you would misconstrue the importance and decides to go
public. In this regard, I will not hold back to say that the essence of this
message is strictly for mutual benefit between you and I and nothing more.
 
I will be vivid and coherent in my next message in this regard. Meanwhile,
could you send me an email confirming the receipt of this message and I
should proceed to send you more detailed information for your absolute
understanding regarding my intentions?
I will await your thoughts via my personal email: lt.johnbrown1956@hotmail.com
Thanks,
 
Best Regards
Lt. John Brown

Anti-fraud resources: