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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

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

Fraud email example:

From: "Allen George" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <allgeorge11@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2011 07:04:21 -0700
Subject: From Mr. Allen George..

From: Mr. Allen George.....
Occupation: External Auditor

Hello,

I know that this mail will come to you as a surprise as we never met
before. I Hoped that you will not expose or betray this trust and
confident that I am about to repose on you for the mutual benefit of
our both families. I need your urgent assistance in transferring the
sum of Eighteen Million British Pound Sterling(£18 million GBP)
Immediately to your account.

The fund has been dormant (in-active) for 10 years in our Bank here
without any body coming for it. I want to release the fund to you as
the nearest person to our deceased customer Late Mr.Gordon Marco (the
owner of the account) who died along with his supposed next of kin in
air crash since on 31st July 2001. The Bank will release the fund to
you as the nearest person to the deceased customer. For more
information about the crash you can visit this site:

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

I thus propose to do business with you, standing in as the next of kin
of these funds from the deceased and after due legal processes have
been followed the fund will be released to your account without delay
and we will use it for investment and to assist the less privileged in
the Society because if we leave the fund with the government it will
be fortified for nothing and will be used to suppress the poor masses
in the society. This transaction is totally free of risk as the fund
is legitimate and does not originate from drug, money laundry,
terrorism or any other illegal act.

Please I would like you to keep this proposal as a top secret and
delete it if you are not interested. Upon receipt of your reply, I
will give you more details regarding this transaction. Finally, you
will have 40% of the above mentioned amount if you agree to help me
execute this business. And also after the funds has been transfered
into your bank account you will take 5% out as a compensation for any
expenses you may incurr in this transaction and 55% is for me. I need
to hear from you urgent so that I will give you more information
regarding this transaction.

I look forward to hear from you as soon as possible if you are interested.

Regards,

Mr. Allen George

Anti-fraud resources: