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: "Jessica Castillo" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <jessijcastillo@aol.com>
Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2011 00:25:23 -0000
Subject: Hello

Dear Sir,

Compliments of the day to you.

I am the account officer to one of our foreign customer Mr. Christian Goetz,
who died intestate. I wish to ask your assistance in this bequest of funds.
Nobody in my bank knows of this mail to you. This is just between me and you.
The late Mr. Christian Goetz until his death was a very dedicated and great
philanthropist . He died on July 31st 2000 in a plane crash. For further
enquiry view the web- site for more details:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm

I wish to notify you that he deposited the sum of US$47,700,000.00 [Forty Seven
Million, US Dollars] with our bank but never left any next of kin or beneficiary
of this deposit in the course of depositing the money. He gave further
directives for the funds to be warehoused , via Diplomatic Proxy , in a Security
Company in Europe. He had wanted to use the funds for a pet project of his
before his untimely death.

In view of the prevailing circumstance, the law requires that upon death,title
to the deceased deposit must vest somewhere. I want you to be presented as his
next of kin. This is risk free transaction.

I hope that i can count on your interest. Reach me at my jessijcastillo@aol.com
address okay.

Yours faithfully,
Jess

Anti-fraud resources: