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: "Raju" (may be fake)
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2013 22:38:36 +0100
Subject: Hi

Dearest,

Kindly take your time to go through this my mail; I am Raju, 20 years old. I got your email contact through the internet and I am sending you this email to request for your help which may be a little surprise to you but please rest assured that I contacted you for honest reason and I want you to honesty take me as important in this transaction.

I am contacting you after I lost my parents in the brutal war in my country in Syria and I escaped by the help of UN humanitarian organization few months after the death of my father in the hospital where he was receiving treatment.

When my father was receiving his treatment, he secretly told me he deposited some huge money in a financial security company in Europe and I must find someone honest to help me contact the company to release the money to me for investment in any peaceful country I like but I must be careful. He gave me the contact telephone number of the lawyer that can help me to legally reclaim the money because he already put my name as the next of kin to the money if anything happens to him.

The reason I contact you is that I need your help with me to reclaim the money from the security bank in Europe and transfer it to your country where I wish to invest and relocate to start a new life. If you will love to help me then I must introduce you to the lawyer in Europe which will tell you the needful to reclaim my inherited money under your assistance to pay the legal cost and the money transferred to your care before I travel to meet with you for my projects in your country.

The Amount is (3.5 million dollars) and I will offer to give you 20% of the whole money if you help me to facilitate the release to you in your country.
Write me back if you are ready and willing to help me and then I will write you details and contact of the lawyer in Europe for what we must do to help reclaim the money soon as possible.

Raju.
,,,,,,

Anti-fraud resources: