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: "Mrs Augusta Madu" <augustamadu9876@sify.com>
Reply-To: <augustamadu987@sify.com>
Date: Sat, 21 Aug 2010 04:18:54 -0400
Subject: ***DONATION FOR NEEDY***

Dear Beloved Friend,

Greetings in the name of Lord Jesus Christ, I am Mrs. Augusta Madu, a widow to late Alhaji Sheik, a new Christian convert suffering from long time cancer of the breast and have only six months, presently I am in a Hospital in London taken my treatment. My late husband, was killed during the USA raid against terrorism in Afghanistan, he was very wealthy, and I
inherited all his business and wealth after his death because during the period of our marriage we couldn't produce any child, so I decided to divide this wealth to churches in Africa, America, Asia and Europe and for humanity in general.

I therefore selected you after visiting the website and I prayed over this selection and I am willing to donate the sum of $10 million US Dollar to you on behalf of your organization to lend a hand in reaching out to the less privileged and the development of the gospel of our lord Jesus Christ. This fund is in presently in Security Company in Switzerland.
So upon your reply I will instruct my attorney Barrister Michael Gill Holonis to file in an application of Withdrawal of this fund to your favor.

So please confirm these items as below if you are interested to assist:

1, your full name
2, your mailing address
3, your telephone and fax numbers.

On receipt of the confirmed items, I will forward it to my Attorney so that some necessary changes will be made on the documents to enable you have claim to the Consignment/Donation, but note that until this Donation of $10 million is delivered to you, I will strongly insist that this transaction most be keep a top secret, as I wait your gentle and kind response to
this mail in my email: augustamadu987@sify.com

God bless you and your family.
Mrs. Augusta Madu

Anti-fraud resources: