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: "Barr Ken David" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <barrkendavidlaw01@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Sat, 4 Jun 2011 09:00:12 -0700
Subject: CLASSIFIED INFORMATION!!!

Good Day,
 
I am Barrister Ken David, I have a late client who deposited US$5 Million with a bank here in my country Lagos Nigeria, before he died, and I need your help to receive this fund as the real Next of Kin to the late client bank, meanwhile I promise to give you 30% of the total funds please get back to me with your full name,address, phone number,sex,age and fax.
 
I wait to hear back from you.
 
Regard Ken David.

Anti-fraud resources: