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"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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Andrew Vellu H." (may be fake)
Reply-To: <andrewhowell@megamail.pt>
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2012 09:18:05 +0100
Subject: please get back to me .

Treat Urgent Please....
Greetings to you ,

Dear Sir,
I am Mr. Andrew Vellu, I work with a Bank here in UK, and I am contacting you in confidence on this very urgent and confidential proposition that will be of mutual benefit to us all and our children. In the cause of discharging my duties as a banker, I have discovered an account belonging to a Foreigner, an Oil Consultant/Contractor here in my Country, who operated a domiciliary Account, valued at Twenty Five Million United States dollar in my branch, without presenting usual information on his Next of Kin beneficiary. For about (11) years now, we have been looking forward to any vital information on the depositor, but it has been confirmed that the original depositor (Mr. Andreas Schranner ) died in Plane crash. You can confirm from the link below: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/859479.stm

I shall meet with you thus at the completion of the transaction for my own percentage as we will discuss at the indication of your interest to work with me. This is a fair deal without any risk attached and will be legally transacted. I propose an offer of 25% of the total amount to be your compensation and commission after the transfer has been successfully concluded. Reply me: andrewhowell1@megamail.pt
I wait for your reply with your phone number.

Regards,
Andrew Vellu ..

Anti-fraud resources: