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"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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: sherin <goodhope01@att.net>
Reply-To: mrssherinfamily@hotmail.com
Date: Tue, 23 Feb 2010 21:49:49 -0800 (PST)
Subject: I AM A WIDOW PLEASE HELP



Hello Dear,

Greetings in the name of Jesus, l am only a widow who is desperate for an assistance, I am Mrs. Sherin a widow originally from Zimbabwe, but living in south Africa with my son James as a refugee after the death of my husband, l inherited the sum of US$12Million (Twelve Million United States America Dollars), from my late husband which he deposited in a private security company here in south Africa before he died, he was a very rich tobacco farmer before he died, he was killed by the government of our president ROBERT MUGABE government.

l am living as a refugee l cannot transfer this money myself. Please do contact me on this email address (mrssherinfamily@hotmail.com), please write me on my private email above please.

l am willing to give you some commission, l will tell you more when l hear from you, l also have a good friend of my late husband who is a financial adviser here ( former bank manager) who promise to help me transfer this money bank when l get somebody l trust, he was the person that advised me to get an international partner to assist me, because l cannot do any banking transaction here in south Africa because l am a refugee.

l will send you my documents, my refugee identity and my husband's death certificate, so you can see everything about me, l tell you more about this transaction when l get your reply, please l want you to be honest with me, if you are not honest l will not carry out this transaction with you, THIS EMAIL IS NOT CONFIDENTIAL, PLEASE REPLY ON THIS ADDRESS (mrssherinfamily@hotmail.com) more details. ,

l am waiting for your response

Regards,
Mrs. Sherin

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