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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: "Mr. Gilbert Smith" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mr.cashbert@yahoo.com.cn>
Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2011 12:53:36 -0700
Subject: VERY IMPORTANT & URGENT

From: ALLIED SECURITY.

Good day! I am sending this message in respect of a consignment that was kept in custody of our bondage security vault bearing a tag identification of your name as the approved next of kin to the deposited inheritance, which supposed to have been delivered to you since long time Ago.

My name is Mr. Gilbert Smith, a storage attendant in charge of the security vault of the above security company in Accra Ghana. From my record, I discovered that this consignment was among other consignments supposed to have been delivered through Ecowas Diplomatic courier unit but still on hold for some logistic reasons. During the verification process, this consignment of one trunk box was discovered to contain some reasonable sum of money in 100-dollar bills. By law and our company's rules and regulation, no staff should have access to entire contents of any deposit except the original depositor, approved next of kin, consignee or rightful beneficiary but I still kept this finding top secret to my very self only.

Now, I will secretly arrange for immediate shipment of this consignment abroad to you without disclosing to anybody. To have a smooth and risk free transaction, you must agree to:
1. Accept to keep the entire transaction confidential, information's must not be disclosed to any third party for security reasons.

2. You must agree to compensate me with 20% of the total inheritance when delivered and claimed by you.

3. No prepayments in form of documentations, shipment cost, demur-rage, insurance etc until final destination of the cargo where the handling charges will be settled.

As soon as I receive your response towards the above stated terms, working arrangement will be carried on immediately to ensure smooth delivery of the consignment. I will attach my passport copy for close identification including the picture of the content of your consignment.

NOTE: You should also confirm your current residential / official address to avoid any wrong delivery And Direct Phone Number To Ease Communication.

Yours sincerely,
Mr. Gilbert Smith.
Allied Security company ltd. Ghana
Mr.cashbert1@gmail.com

Anti-fraud resources: