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: Susan Wong <susa1wong@hotmail.co.uk>
Reply-To: wosusan1@ymail.com
Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2012 13:54:56 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: Mrs. Susan Wong


Dear in Christ,

My greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. how are you and your family? It is true that we just know each other for the first time, Please, I want you to give this message your urgent attention and get back to me so that I can give you more information on this.

Before I give you more information, let me officially introduce myself to you. My name is MRS. SUSAN WONG. I’m from the People’s Republic of China. I was married to the late MR. ZHOU WONG who worked with Chinese Embassy in Canada for nine years before he died in the year 2006. We were married for Sixteen years without a child. He finally came back to China to establish an export company after his retirement.  He died after a brief illness that lasted for only four days. After his death, I could no longer manage the exporting company because of my critical health condition.

After his death, I decided not to remarry or get a child outside my matrimonial home which the Bible is against. When my late husband was alive, he deposited the total sum of US$4,600,000.00 (Four Million, Six Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) with the CHINA CONSTRUCTION BANK here in China.

And  I want to donate the money to you because of my health condition.  Recently, my Doctor told me that I would not last for the next Eight months due to cancer problem. The one that disturbs me most is my stroke sickness. Having known my condition, I decided to donate this fund to a church, organization like yours or a Christian that will utilize this money the way I am going to instruct herein. I want a church or a Christian that will use this fund for orphanages, widows, charity organizations, NGO anywhere in the World .

When my late husband deposited the fund, he used my name as the next of kin. All I have to do is to sign a Power of Attorney in your name as my co-beneficiary and also instruct the bank to transfer the money to you. I will send you the “Certificate of Deposit” and the “Lodgement Receipt” that covers the fund when I hear from you.  I will also send you my pictures too.

 As soon as I receive your reply, I will send you more information when I receive your response. Let me hear from you urgently.
 
Remain blessed in the Lord.
Yours in Christ
Mrs. Susan Wong
From People’s Republic of China


Anti-fraud resources: