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: "Governor Sanuce Lamido" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <sanucelamido02qq@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2012 16:51:15 +0300
Subject: Re: IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF YOUR FUND VIA TRANSFER VERY URGENT

From the desk of Governor Sanuce Lamido
 
Federal Ministry Of Internal Affairs
 
Plot 150 Adetola Street, Ikeja
 
EMAIL: sanucelamido01qq@hotmail.com
 
Lagos Nigeria.
 
 
Dear,
 
 
I'm the personal secretary to the new Minister of Internal Affairs and was directed by the Honorable Minister, to urgently confirm from you if actually you know one Mr. Peter Woo who claims to be your business associate/partner herein Nigeria. The said Mr. Peter Woo is claiming to this office that you are dead and have instructed that all relevant
 
Documentation/Information regarding your Payment/Transfer is changed to him as the beneficiary of the payment short-listed among the foreign beneficiaries entitled to receive entitlements owed to them, by the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
 
 
For your Information, this Government has approved the total amount of TEN MILLION, FIVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY SIX THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS ONLY, in your favor, prior to the federal Government instructions/mandate to offset all outstanding payments to the various legal foreign beneficiaries around the world and your payment file was affected. We need to confirm from you if it's really true that you are dead as made mention by your Associate.
 
 
You should note that, If we do not hear from you, it automatically means that you are actually dead and the information passed to us by Mr. Peter Woo is correct. Hence, you are hereby requested to reply this mail immediately for confirmation, before we proceed with this payment and for us to know the true position of things with you so that we won't make any mistakes/errors in remitting your out-standing payment to a wrong person/account.
 
 
Your quick response will help this ministry a lot.
 
 
Best Regards.
 
 
EMAIL: sanucelamido01qq@hotmail.com
 
Governor Sanuce Lamido
 
Secretary for: Federal Minister of Internal Affairs.

Anti-fraud resources: