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: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: sgt.irvin_brown481@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:10:42 +0800
Subject: In Good Faith And Trust.

Dear,

I apologize to encroach into your privacy in this manner,My name is Sgt Irvin
Brown US ARMY serving the World and my country in the most honourable way I
know I can, in AFGHANISTAN right now, in a nutshell, I am an American soldier
serving in the Military with the Army 3rd infantry division. With a very
desperate need for assistance, I found your contact particulars during my
email search and picked up courage to contact you for your assistance.

Some money in various currencies were discovered in a room at a farm house
near one of Osama Bin Laden's old house in Kabul-Afghanistan during a rescue
operation, I happened to be one of the soldiers that lead that operation that
day, so it was agreed by Col. William E. Cole the head of our battalion that
some part of this money will be shared among both of us before informing
anybody about it since both of us saw the money first. This was quite an
illegal thing to do, but I tell you what? No compensation can make up for the
risk we have taken with our lives in this hell hole, my brother in-law was
killed by a road side bomb just few months ago, and I cannot count how many
times GOD has saved my life down here.

Now i found a very reliable way of sending a trunk metallic box containing
the amount of United States Dollars worth Twelve Million Five Hundred
Thousand Dollars(US$ 12.5 Million) as you must agree with me it has been hell
on earth trying to keep this money safe from people's eyes for all these
while and with this opportunity all I need is just someone capable I can
trust 100% I can send the consignment box to.
So if you can assure me of your honesty I will go ahead and send the box to
you for safe keeping till I am back home and I will gladly give you 40% of
the money.



If this okay with you please get back to me with the following so i can get
the box across to you.

1. Your full name
2. Contact address
3. Telephone number
4. Occupation.
5. I.D Card.

Waiting to hear from you.

Yours in Service.
Regard
Sgt Irvin Brown
US ARMY

Anti-fraud resources: