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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: "Betty Johnson" <bettyandlucky@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:02:32 +0600
Subject: Please !!

Dearest one,

Greetings, Please with Due respect and humility, I got your contact
from the (International web site directory) We know that this is not
the normal way to contacts someone because of the too much scam in the
internet but we did it because of its confidenciality.

I am Betty Johnson, the only Daughter of late Mr. Wilfred Johnson. My
father was a very wealthy cocoa merchant in Abidjan, the economic
capital of Ivory Coast before he was poisoned to death by his business
associates, my mother died on the 28 November 1998 according to my
father he took me and my younger brother so special because we are
motherless. Before the death of my father on 29th April 2006 in a
private hospital here in Abidjan.

He secretly called me on his bedside and told me that he has the sum
of $5.000.000 (Five Million Dollars) left in a suspense account in a
Bank in (Europe), that he used my name as his first Daughter for the
next of kin in deposit of the fund. He also explained to us that it
was because of this wealth and some huge amount of money his business
associates supposed to balance him from the deal they had that he was
poinsed, that I should seek for a God fearing foreign partner in a
country of my choice where we will transfer this money and use it for
investment purpose, (such as real estate management) for our future
hope.

Please We are honourably seeking your assistance in the following
ways.

To provide a Bank account where this money would be transferred to and
also promise us that you will remain honest and serve as the guardian
of this funds with the investment since we are too young to handle
such
project, untill we finishes our education we will now take over. We
have every legal evidence to proove about this funds.

Moreover we are willing to offer you 15% of the total sum as
compensation for effort input after the successful transfer of this
fund into your designate account in your country. As soon as you
comfirm the money in your account, you will be sending us a sufficient
ammount to get our visa to come over and continue our studies in your
contry.

We are waiting to hear from you.

Thank you.
Yours Sincerely,
Betty Johnson.

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