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"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: "M. Erwin" <info@mpmill.com>
Reply-To: hr.micheal.erwin@aim.com
Date: Sun, 09 Feb 2014 18:32:19 -0500
Subject: Fund transfer.


Dear friend, My name is Micheal Erwin. I work with a finance house here in =
the Netherlands. During my last meeting and examination of the bank account=
s within our bank, my department found a dormant account with an enormous s=
um of US$ 55,500,000.00 (fifty five million five hundred thousand US dollar=
) which was deposited by a late Mr. Williams from England before his death.=
From our investigation he had no next of kin to claim these funds. Accordi=
ng to the Netherlands banking regulation only a foreigner can stand as next=
of kin, considering the fact that the depositor was a non-Dutch. I need yo=
ur permission to stand as a partner of our deceased customer, so that the f=
unds can be released and transferred to your bank account immediately. At t=
he end of the transaction 40% will be for you and 60% will be for me and my=
colleagues. I still work at the financial house and that's the reason I ne=
ed a second party to work with. I have in my possession all the necessary d=
ocuments to have this transaction carried out successfully. Further informa=
tion will be provided upon the receipt of your prompt response. Also take n=
ote that this transaction is risk free, all I need is your honesty and trus=
t . Kindly reply me with your private email (for confidential reasons) so t=
hat I can give you more details and explain the procedures of the proposal =
to you. Please Kindly respond back to me on this email ( hr.micheal.erwin@a=
im.com ) Best regards. Micheal Erwin.

Anti-fraud resources: