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: "MRS BETTY ELSHOF" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <bettyudoukwa@dr.com>
Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2013 08:04:34 -0400
Subject: HELLO

Goodday

My Name is Mrs Betty Elshoff from Holland in Netherlands,I work in an Internal Audit department of an Oil servicing Company in SYRIA, I have a sum of $6.8m to pay to you for safekeeping Due to Crisis in Syria here.i will give you 20% of the total sum when you receive the funds in your counrty,send me your Full contact address and Phone details so that i will tell you how you will receive these funds in your country.Thanks

Mrs Betty Elshoff

Anti-fraud resources: