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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: Rahim Mustafa <rrahimnew2@yahoo.com.my>
Reply-To: jsnewq1@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2011 06:54:16 +0800 (SGT)
Subject: Greetings....


Good day, My.FriendI am please to meet you and to inform you about something important about myself, first of all let me introduce myself first by saying.
My name is Rahim Mustafa from Libya and the only son of the late general hammed Mustafa of the Libyan army, he was kill along side some of the soldiers in Benghazi.....it was a tragically experience to see dead bodies on the streets, 
I managed to escape from the country with my mother and used the help of the NETO armies who came to Libya Benghazi for peace keeping, to help I and my mother to escape without any harm to west Africa Ghana......I manage to escape with some valuable documents concerning my late father's wealth kept for me as the next of kin to inherit in west Africa {Ghana}.
When we got the Ghana, we manage to lodge in a local camp because of security reasons, now I am been reasonable enough to go through the document and I found out that my late father deposited a huge sum of money in a security company for my future up bring, my father also stated that I am the next of kin as the only son of my parents, my late father also wrote in his will that the security company here in Ghana is not aware of the contains.
My late father deposited it as a family treasure worth {$35million} now I need a urgent assistance to help me move this money out of Africa to your country for an investment and also for I and my mother upkeep.....this is to say I need your assistance to get this money out soon, so I can start a new life and go back to school, I and my mother has decided to give you 30% of the total amount kept in the security company, 
Kindly get back so I can forward all necessary document concerning this transaction.keep this confidential, for our safetyBest regard Rahim Mustafa

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