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: "Mr. John White" <deloramasters@att.net>
Reply-To: <johnwhitecc@live.com>
Date: Fri, 4 Jan 1980 01:53:01 +0100
Subject: Hello!!!! Please Confirm!!!!

I am an accredited private debt reconciliation consultant and have been retained by the
World Bank to help reconcile few outstanding payments of which you are one. They
include, contract payments, inheritance/probate claim, investment, lotto pay out, etc.
In the course of our evaluation we received an urgent notice from one Mr.Richard
Williams of the United States of America instructing that we forward your payment to a
new bank account in which he is the beneficiary. For our verification, kindly email us a
letter of authorization you gave to Mr Richard Williams. to receive your payment on your
behalf.

Note, your earlier payment approvals have been placed on hold until we receive an
acknowledgment of this email from you. Email me at: johnwhite71@live.com

Thanks for your understanding and co-operation.

Yours Faithfully,

MS LAURYN LAMBERT

(Secretary)

Anti-fraud resources: