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: "Barbra Cole" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <bcole015@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2011 19:41:10 +0100
Subject: Greetings

I'm Barbara Cole, I'm 15 years old girl I leave in Bolton UK before my Dad passed away in a car accident 3 years ago, I now leave with my step mum in Warrington, My mum died immediately she gave birth to me. My late Dad Mr.Norman Cole was a big business man in UK before he died in a car accident 2007 I am the only child of my Dad, he died 3 days after the accident so he Will all his life savings to me, I have been trying to collect the funds from the bank but the bank MD CEO refused, he said I should present someone old enough so he can transfer the funds to the person that I can’t be in control of the huge amount of funds because I am still a teenage and it is against the UK law. I would have told my step mum to assist me in collecting the funds from the bank but she is not a good woman, my Dad warned me about her before he died, now that I leave with her I now understand that what my Dad said about her was true, because she don’t give me attention she don’t care if I am alright or not, all she do is to ta
If you agree to help me, I will send you a copy of the Will and my picture so you will know me, and I will send you the contact of the Bank and tell you how much is the funds so you can contact them, and I will inform the bank that you will contact them that you are the person that want to help me.I will be waiting for your urgent reply so I can send you the contact of the bank and my father’s Will and death certificate.
Please this letter has to be confidential,and I need your 100% trust and loyalty because the lawyer I got involved wanted to made away with the money, so I told the bank not to transfer the funds to him, I already promised to give you half of the funds so please be honest with me.If you are interested please reply me on my email: bcole015@yahoo.co.jp Best Regards Barbara Cole

Anti-fraud resources: