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: =?UTF-8?B?Y2hyaXMgcm93bGFuZCA=?= <chrisrowlandatlyodsbank@citromail.hu>
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2013 09:53:47 +0200
Subject: =?UTF-8?B?THVjcmF0aXZl?=


Dear Sir Please find time to read my proposition, which I expect shall meet you and your family in good health? Firstly, I apologize for sending you this sensitive Information via e-mail instead of a Certified mail / Post-mail. I am Chris Rowland, an account clerk in one of the prime banks in UK. It is my pleasure to seek your assistance in this noble transaction for our mutual benefit. On 05 March 2007, German business mogul Adolf Merckle made a fix deposit for twelve calendar months valued at £26,000,000.00(Twenty six Million pounds sterling) in my branch and I was nominated his account officer. On maturity, I went through his records as I heard the CNN Breaking news of his self inflicted death at the train station on the 9th of January 2009, following global recession which left serious crunch on his finances. My intention was to inform his family of his standing account record with our bank but to my astonishment I found out there was no next of kin in his record. The total sum of Twenty six million pounds is standing in His favor in my bank as dormant account with accrued interest, although I have reactivated the account by paying into same my personal money and has been keeping the link record in suspense, waiting for any of his relatives/family to come for claims but before now as I send you this mail all indication that his family could come for these funds looks to me a case of mirage as they have no clue this money exist, hence am contacting you to help me fast make a deal out of this opportunity to avoid detection by external auditors/the authorities in UK. Now I need your support and your full cooperation, so that we will have this fund swiftly wired into your bank account for our disbursement preferably if you live outside UK. Please if you are not interested, disregard and ignore this mail and never divulge/disseminate this privileged info. Regards, Mr. Chris Rowland


Anti-fraud resources: