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 Reginald" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrsreginaldpeterson@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2012 12:01:56 -0000
Subject: THE TRUTH ABOUT YOUR FUNDS DIVERSION..

My Dear:
 
 
In accordance to my religious persuasion, I felt expedient to write and inform you on the wicked conspiracy hatched
 
by the duo of Prof. Charles Peterson and Barrister Kiamu of the Ministry of Finance to divert your money to their
 
designated account in Europe .
 
>From my position as a lowly clerk in this office, I discovered that they moved the fund from Africa to Spain and
 
then moved it last week to Banco Italiano in ITALY . Today I found out through the Central computer database that
 
they are about to reroute your fund to a security company in London . With this, I felt that it is important for me
 
to alert you on this development.
 
 
They are still using your name and contract/inheritance identification number as the beneficiary but they have
 
changed the account co-ordinate and this is the reason they are frustrating you by asking for endless fees in order
 
to buy time pending on when they will transfer your funds to their designated account in cayman islands. I have the
 
reference number of the transaction and also I have the number of the official who is directly in charge at the
 
SECURITY COMPANY in LONDON . 
 
Your payment is supposed to go through the London credit control financial clearing house before finally Lodge in
 
the security company there in London . All the data about your claim profile are within my reach. I do not need
 
gratification from you either in cash or kind. I can never be a part of evil because the bible said YE SHALL KNOW
 
THE TRUTH AND THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE.
 
Please respect my discretion in this matter, you can send an email to me so that I can give you the reference
 
number and the name and contact information of the officials of the security company in London .  I repeat, please
 
do not expose my person, it is not easy to get jobs around here and I cannot contend with these powerful
 
individuals because they can eliminate me just like that. 
 
God bless you
Mrs Reginald

Anti-fraud resources: