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: Capt Tomas Bjarland <bjarlandtomas@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: tomasbjarland@yahoo.com
Date: Mon, 3 Sep 2012 17:31:08 +0700
Subject: Hopefully...


--
My name is Sergeant Tomas Bjarland.

I am a Finnish soldier with the background of America, serving in the armed
forces Army 173rd Airborne Brigade and UN military observer in Syria. With
the urgent need of your help, I have summed value to you. I found your
contact information in an electronic diary. I seek your kind assistance to
move the sum of ($ 20,000,000.00 million) Twenty Million Dollars for you,
so you can be assured that my share will be safe in his care. this is not
stolen money, and there is no danger involved.

Source of money:

Some money in various currencies was discovered in containers in a farm
house hidden behind the false wall near one of Hafez al-Assad in ancient
palaces Azm Palace in Damascus Syria during a rescue operation. I and
Sergeant Edmond Ryan take a share of this money and split between the two
before informing anybody about it since both of us saw the money first
agreed on it. This was an illegal much to do, but I tell you what? No
compensation can make up for the risk we have taken in our lives in this
hell of a bomb that killed my best friend last week.


The above figure was given to me as my share, so with the help of a contact
British observer working here and his office enjoy some immunity, I was
able to get the package to a safe place, completely out of focus problems.
He does not know the actual contents of the package, and believes that
Europe belongs to a doctor doctor who died in a raid here in Syria, and
before giving up, trusted me to hand over the package to his family in
Europe.

We will share in proportion of 30% for and 70% kindself for myself that
will be safe in their hands. in fact, when you contact me I'll tell you
things and position details.

Regards,
Tomas.

Anti-fraud resources: