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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: SARAH BALAS <ms550368@msn.com>
Reply-To: <ms450b@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2012 06:59:38 +0000
Subject: DEAREST ONE!!





Dearest One,

Good day to you and May god bless you. I am writing you this letter based on the information I gathered on your profile. i am miss Sarah Balas, I am a Ivorian national, the only child of late colonel Lucas balas, my father was one of the government army loyal to the ex-incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo elected in the 28th November 2010 election in ivory coast.

I am writing you to assist me to the transfer of the sum of ($9.5 million) nine million five hundred united states dollars only to your country which my father kept in a box and deposited with a private security company for safe keeping and declared the content as family treasure for onward delivery to the designated address of his foreign partner. i have made frantic efforts to contact this foreign associate to my father since he has been cut off from all communication but all to no avail.
I therefore solicit you to contact this company as the foreign associate to my father to claim this box which will be delivered to your designated address as a diplomatic luggage. when you have received this box, you will the arrange for my arrival into your country to enable me complete my education and also invest with this money on vital projects.

I have the documents which the company issued to my dad when he deposited this box with them. I will send them to you as proof of your argument when you will apply for the delivery of this box to you. I have interest in going into estate business or other vital project which you might advice me.
Should you be of assistance, i would therefore wait for your return mail to enable me send to you the contact of the company and the documents. Note that i am still in Cote d'Ivoire and I don't want the new incumbent government of my country to know that my father left this fortune with me here, therefore you must keep this transaction between us as secrets. Please kindly send to me your full contact details such as.

(1) Your complete names
(2) Your direct telephone & fax numbers.
(3) Your age and occupation

Upon the receipt of your return mail, i will send to you the documents and the contact of the company to enable you write them via email. For your assistance, I will offer you 20% of the total sum when the money is finally transferred.
Thanks in anticipation of your urgent response.
Please kindly send your email through this my private email box: ms450b@yahoo.co.jp


Yours sincerely,
Sarah

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