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: Aicha Shar <aichashar@yahoo.co.id>
Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2011 17:40:48 +0800 (SGT)
Subject: How are you today my friend ,


How are you today my friend ,
 
My name is Mrs.Aicha Shareef , from Benin Republic, widow. I lost my
husband for so long ,he is a former Consular of the Benin embassy in
Madrid,Spain I have been recently been diagnosed of Cancer of the pelvis.
 
I am writing from my sick bed.There is this USD$17.2M (Seventeen Million
Two Hundred Thousand American Dollars) my husband has in an account with the
Africa Development Bank Benin Republic of which I am the next of kin. With my
health condition and because my husband and I have no children, I am looking for
a credible person to whom I will pass the right of next of kin.
 
This person will apply to the bank and request for the transfer of the fund
to his/her bank account. This is on the condition that you will take 25% of the
fund for yourself, 5% used for expenses, while you will use the remaining 70%
for the less privilege people in the society. this is in fulfilment of the last
request of my husband that a substantial part of the fund be used to carter for
the less privileged.
 
I cannot do this my self any more. I once asked members of my family to
close one of my late husband bank accounts and donate the money which I have
there to the less privilege people in the society; they refused and kept
themoney to themselves. Hence, I do not trust them anymore, as they seems not to
be contended with what I have left for them.
 
 If this condition is acceptable to you, you should contact me immediately
with your full names and contact information so that I will ask our family
lawyer to prepare the authorization that will give you the right of next of kin
to the account in the bank.
 
I will also give you a text of the application you are to send to the
bank.I cannot predict what will be my faith by the time the fund will be
transferred into your account, but you should please ensure that the fund is
used as I have described above.

Please reply to my private email address: celine_shareef@yahoo.co.uk
 
Best regards to you and your family,
Mrs.Aicha Shareef.  

Anti-fraud resources: