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: "Donald Johnson" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrdonjohn23@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2010 16:15:28 -0700
Subject: Immediate Attention Needed

Goodday,
My name is Mr Donald Johnson from south Africa; a personal account manager to
my late client who died in air crash along with his family,(US$14.7M) left behind in our bank; You can confirm http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/07/20/kenya.crash/index.html

I am writing you to seek for your Sincere Co-operation to present you as the
heir to the available cash due to the fact that he did not specify anyone as
his next of kin on our record. But due to the sensitivity of this matter I have
intentionally left out some final details.

If you are keen/interested to help me please kindly state your full names,
Address, Age, telephone, fax number and occupation to enable me to make you the
next of kin to the available funds and for further precise details.

I wait for your prompt respond.

Mr.Donald Johnson.


Anti-fraud resources: