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: "Thomas Wolfgang" <thomas.wolfgang@aol.com>
Date: Sat, 23 Nov 2013 05:54:44 +0100
Subject: RE: Important Information


Dear SirMy Name is Barrister, Thomas Wolfgang a Private lawyer to Late Eng. K. H. Cieslak, national of your country, who used to work as the Director of Oil &amp; Petroleum total Benin.On 31st of July 2010 my client and his family were involved in a car accident unfortunately lost their lives, I am contacting you in reference to an account valued $32.5M (Thirty Two Million, Five Hundred Thousand United State Dollars) deposited in Bank here in Benin Republic by my late client before his unfortunate death. I seek your consent to present your name to the Bank as the next of kin to my late client so that this amount will be paid to you as the new beneficiary. For your partnership, I propose you shall be entitled to 50% of the total sum while 50% shall be reserve for me for investment in your country. To confirm your acceptance of my proposal, kindly send the following information:Full name:Address:Occupation:Age:Telephone number:Thanks and God Bless you.Looking forward for your prompt responseRegardsBarr: Thomas Wolfgang

Anti-fraud resources: