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: "Mrs Vanessa Whyte" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <vanessawhyte5@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2012 20:13:59 -0000
Subject: Greetings from Vanessa Whyte.

I offer my friendship, and my greetings, and I hope this letter meets you in good time. It will be surprising to you to receive this proposal from me since you do not know me personally.
 
Mrs Vanessa Whyte from United Kingdom ( London ), I am 58 years old, born in Malaysia Kelantan and was offered to a Charity Home in London when I was 12 years old. I am suffering from a long time cancer of the breast, from all indication my conditions is really deteriorating and it is quite obvious that I can't work or do any stressful thing, according to my doctors they have advised me that I may not live for the next two months, this is because the cancer stage has gotten to a very bad stage. I was brought up from a motherless babies home. I was married to my late husband for twenty years without a child.
 
My Husband (Whyte) died in a fatal motor accident, before his death we were true believers . Since his death I decided not to re-marry, I sold all my inherited belongings and deposited all the sum of $5.6 million dollars with a Security Company in Malaysia.
 
Presently, this money is still with them and the management just wrote me as the true owner to come forward to receive the money for keeping it so long will attract a demurrage fees as the security fees paid by me has expired or rather issue a letter of authorization to somebody to receive it on my behalf since I can not come over because of my illness or they get it confisticated.
 
So instead of getting it confiscated I rather have someone whom I can trust to receive the funds and utilize it according to my Wishes. And the best part of it is, the security company told me in the letter that they can have the funds released to my approved person authorized by me or transferred to his bank account and if outside Malaysia, then transferred to his or her bank account.
 
Presently, I am using my laptop in the hospital in United Kingdom ( London ) where I have been undergoing treatment for my sickness. I have lost my ability to talk and my doctors have told me that I have only more 2 months to live. It is my last wish to see at least 60% of this money invested/donated to any organization/business of your choice and distributed each year among the charity organization, e.g. the poor homes, the motherless babies home where I came from, the deaf homes,
 
All I seek for is someone who has fear for the Almighty,who will carry out my last wishes and before I emailed you today I prayed my spirit gave me the confidence to send you this email. I took this decision, before I rest in peace because my time will soon be up.
 
As soon as I receive your reply I will direct you to my personal Lawyer, He Is Presently Undergoing Seminal Research In Ireland, he does everything on my Behalf and he's a very understanding Person and I believe he will lead you according to my Instructions and ensure that you Receive this Fund Successfully.
 
Please send me the Below information
 
NAME:
ADDRESS:
AGE:
OPCCPATION:
TELEPHONE NO:
EMAIL ADDRESS
 
All I need from you is a confidential assurance that the funds when received by you will be used for the said purpose, Nowadays there are so much scams going on in the internet and it is difficult to trust but I Believe that the Almighty will not direct me to a wrong person that will misuse this fund on a selfish interest.
 
Waiting for your reply.
 
Remain Blessed.
Vanessa Whyte

Anti-fraud resources: