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: Ian Godfrey <iangodfrey@web2mail.com>
Reply-To: iangodfrey1@hotmail.co.uk
Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2010 21:32:40 -0300
Subject: With regards my previous email


--
Dear Friend

With Regards My previous email to you i introduce myself as Mr Ian
Godfrey,from Kensal Green here in London, and i work for NatWest Bank. my
reason of contacting you is to Introduce an opportunity that arose from my
office which needs an URGENT ATTENTION, and which i also believed would
bring in a great benefit to both of us.

We have discovered an abandon sum of money to the tune of $10.5 million USD
that belongs to one of our LATE FOREIGN CUSTOMER named Morris Thompson,who
unfortunately lost his life and that of
his entire family of 3 in the Alaska Airlines Flight 261 which crashed on
January 31 2000.

Please allow me to present you as a distant cousin of our late client, so
that the left over fund would be paid into an account that you would be
providing, and which we shall be sharing to a percentage that we shall
agree upon.

I shall provide all necessary legal documents that would backup our claims
in your names or a name that you may provide as far as you have an account
in that name so that this money would be paid into it, all i
need is to fill in your names into the documents so that our Attorney would
legalize those details of yours in a probate court so as to stand you out
as the legitimate beneficiary to whom this sum of money is legally allowed
to be paid into its account. Please provide the details below so we can get
things started on time.

Your Names:
Age/Sex:
Occupation:
Telephone Numbers including mobile:
Contact address:

An urgent response to this mail, so that i shall intimate you on the next
line of action, as we intend to conclude the transaction within 10 working
days.
You can send your response to my personal email address: (
iangodfrey1@hotmail.co.uk )

Best Regards
Ian Godfrey

Anti-fraud resources: