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: "Ms Adelaide Gregory" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <adelgreg@cantv.net>
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2010 01:33:10 -0700
Subject: FROM Ms ADELAIDE.GREGORY !!!

Good Day Dearest,
 
I am a girl of 18 years old, my name is Ms Adelaide Gregory form cote d'Divoire,
a second year university student. I have a very big problem now and that is why i am contacting you for an urgent assistance.
My mother died of (T/B) Tuberculosis years back. My late father Mr. Gregory Nuel, a well known politician here in cote d' ivoire.
You may have heard over the BBC OR CNN concerning the political crisis happening here,in my country and last year the election of the country was canceled because of some problem that is going on even till today. This is to tell you how my country is in big political problem. My father was murdered in our house here by unknown person but after a year,I come to realise that it was done by people in power. I can not fight them so i leave vengeance to God.
It was like my father knew what was going to happen because he call me one day and told me that he has a deposit $7 million USA dollars with a bank here in Abidjan. And he told me that he used my name for the deposit of the money in a fixed deposit account for 5 years,
and warned me not to tell any body about this.
Now.the situation has warranted me to relate this story to you based on my trust and believe in you,I therefore seek your urgent help to have this money transferred to your country from the bank as my late father' business partner for further assistance to me in my education to transfer this money into your account and also help me to invest the money in your country since I do not know anything about business.
I will appreciate your assistance in getting this funds out of this bank.
I will give you full detailed information about this funds and the bank involved as soon as you are willing to help out of this problem.
Regards
Miss Adelaide Gregory

Anti-fraud resources: