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: Charles Kone <charleskone@voila.fr>
Reply-To: konecharles@voila.fr
Date: Tue, 25 Jun 2013 16:33:50 +0100 (BST)
Subject: REPLY URGENT




Dear friend,



My name is Mr. Charles Kone. I am the Chief Operating Officer, United Bank for Africa, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.



I want you to indicate your interest to receive a transfer of $7.6 Million into your account. I would like you to stand as a next of kin to our deceased client whose account is presently dormant. I wish to inform you that 40% of this money will be for you as foreign partner, in respect to the provision of a foreign account, while the remaining 60% would be for me. Thereafter I will visit your country for disbursement according to the percentages indicated.



Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you details and a text of application which you shall send to our bank as the next of kin to the deceased.



Trusting to hear from you as soon as possible.



Yours faithfully,

Charles Kone

Anti-fraud resources: