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: Princess Mary Jacobs <princessmaryjacobs@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 17:31:27 +0200
Subject: Hello!


Greetings,

I am a 19 year old female student. I would like to build up a solid
foundation with you in time coming if you can be able to help me in
this transaction. Well, my father died two months ago and left my
aged-mother, my younger brother who is 16years old and I behind.

He was a prominent local king. My younger brother and I are the only
ones that knows of his total wealth he left behind. He left up to USD$
65, 250, 000.00 dollars (SIXTY-FIVE MILLION, TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY
THOUSAND US DOLLARS) with a security firm, and I don't know how and
what to do in investing this money somewhere abroad so that my
father's wicked kindred will not take over what belongs to my father
and our family (just as they have confiscated the ones here). That is
why I am elated when I saw your contact and feels that you are a
honest and trustworthy person that I can call upon to help me take
custody of the funds before I join you in your country considering my
young age.

I thereby sincerely need your help in securing the money from the
security company. Based on your reply I will furnish you with more
details on how we can proceed.I am ready to pay 20% of the total
amount to you if you help us in securing this money and another 10%
interest of Annual Income to you, for handling this business for us
and also investing the funds on our behalf which you will strongly
have absolute control over.

If you can handle this project sincerely and also willing to assist me
in securing this fund, kindly reach me and I will let you know the
next step to take towards actualizing this transaction as quickly as
possible. I look forward to hearing from you soonest.

Yours sincerely,
Princess Mary Jacobs

Anti-fraud resources: