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: "Mr. Nuel Oke" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <hlsustrictwebinfo@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2012 23:29:31 -0700
Subject: I am urgently waiting for your response

Dear Friend:

My names are Mr. Nuel Oke, I am about to retire from my job as auditor with Texaco Oil Company before the end of the year 2012. I write to inform you of my intention to invest in a hotel, real estate or any other business in your country and to request your assistance in carrying out the feasibility studies on location, type and estimation on how much it will cost to establish a three star hotel either by outright purchase, already existing but dilapidated one, renovate or setting up a new one entirely.


If you sincerely carry out this survey, and give me a feedback as early as possible, I will give you the power of attorney to build & manage the hotel on my behalf, pending my retirement. I have (US$8,000,000.00) that I deposited for this project, and 0.8% will be for you as part of services done on completion while the rest will be for setting up the project on my behalf.


I am presently down with kidney transplant as a result of my age but I have been assured by my doctor that I will be fine and back to work soon. Please do let me know if you are capable of handling all these. I will be expecting your reply as soon as possible. This is genuine and I need all seriousness attached to this project.


Thanks.
Mr. Nuel Oke

Anti-fraud resources: