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: Jones Mercy <jonesmerci@gmail.com>
Reply-To: jonesmercy23@yahoo.in
Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:26:12 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Hello



Hello,

The best of the season

and please do not be surprise to this message ok.

My name is Mercy jones and i am a

single lady. One is not bound to have all the joys in live as you may have

everything in life but there are still those things which must share with

someone else as every one has his or her own share of pains to bear in life.

You may be financially and physically alright but may be lacking on the

emotional

side, finding your address among all the addresses in today, it gave me the green light to say I have gotten some one to

hold on, and

also believe to have a honest, trust worthy and God fearing one and why don't

we give ourselves a trial on pen pal relationship .Finally i pray that our good

God should guide and protect you

as you reply me this mail as I

will be very happy to give you my picture and tell you all about my family background with hope of having you as my future dream.

Yours friend Mercy reply me in my email

Jones

Anti-fraud resources: