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: "D. Williams" <williams.letter@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2010 01:19:24 +0000
Subject: Request


Sir,

My name is David Williams, and I am a banker. I write to you on behalf of my
client following as a result of he died with his family in a car crash.
Though he lived as an expatriate due to nature of his work as mechanical
engineering contractor, unfortunately, he did not leave any direct
information that can locate his relatives, and hence this letter.

I decided to write to you based on the fact that you share the same surname.
I seek for any his relatives to collect his property, a sum of $13.5 million
(contract payments) that he left in my bank. The account having remained
unclaimed stands the risk to escheat to the State. However, since the
applicable law to collect the property privileges you and thus, I seek your
attention as “heir-at-law” of my late client for the purpose to release the
money on your behalf rather than it revert to the State.

You can contact me Williams.letter@rediff.com for details.

Sincerely,
David Williams

Anti-fraud resources: