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: "OKON AND ELIZABETH" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <okon_okon@cantv.net>
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2010 02:48:41 -0000
Subject: ONE LOVE

>From Okon amd Elizabeth

Good day and God bless, we are from Sierra Leone. We are writing you from Rep of Cote d'Ivoire where we have been taking refuge after the brutal war and murder of our parents by the rebels during the renewed fighting in our country. Because of the war our late Father sold his shipping company and took us to a nearby country Cote d'Ivoire where he deposited (US$14, 300, 000.00 in one of the famous Banks here in Cote d'Ivoire Please, we got your profile and due to the current political situation in Ivory Coast we are seeking for your assistance to transfer and invest this Inheritance money in your country.
We will relocate to your country to further our education and we are willing to offer you 20% of the total sum for your assistance and help in this transaction.

Please, kindly get back to us for next line of action.

Best Regards,
Okon amd elizabeth

Anti-fraud resources: