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: "Manager Petrotrin" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <info@adamchambers.tk>
Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2013 21:08:05 +0100
Subject: Re: Your silence amazed me!!

The Manager
Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago(Petrotrin)
Trinidad, West Indies
 
Dear Sir,
 
I consider the innermost drive in me, usually propels by unseen and rather, benevolent forces inspired me to contact you. But nevertheless, I am sorry for the necessity to write you and to become maybe bothersome.
I believed in your ability to prosecute a transaction of great magnitude of this kind and I knew you wouldn't disappoint me; nevertheless, my aim was not to instigate you to become a conspirator in crime, as you may imagine? I assure you safety and genuine legal processing of this transaction.
I wonder if you could consider writing me again.
 
Best regards,
Manager Petrotrin

Anti-fraud resources: