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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: Isabel Hutchinson <hutchinsonisbel@gmail.com>
Reply-To: hutchinsonbella@gmail.com
Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2014 05:33:50 +0900
Subject: I need your assurance



Dearest,

Greetings to you and your family. My name is
Isabel Hutchinson. I'm a 77 years old woman. I was a Gold merchant and
owned two businesses in UK and also a textile mill in Ghana. I was also
married with two children. My husband who also happens to be an English man
and two children died in a car accident six years ago.

Before this happened, my business and concern for making money was all
I live for. I never really cared about other values in life. But since
the loss of my family, I have found a new desire to assist helpless
families. I have been helping orphans in orphanage/motherless homes. I
have also donated some money for humanitarian needs in London , South
Africa , Cameroon , Brazil , Spain , Austria ,Germany and some Asian
countries. Only recently I saw on television the colossal loss of
properties and livelihood in The Philippines due to the Storm Hayen over
there. I was moved with great pity and compassion that I decided to
make this contribution on assisting people over there, I kept
$25,700,000.00 Twenty Five Million Seven hundred thousand United State
Dollars in a long term deposit with a Finance company.

Presently, I'm in a hospital where I have been undergoing treatment
for esophagi cancer at one of the best teaching hospital in Accra Ghana.
I have since lost my ability to talk and my doctors have told me that
I have only few months to live. It is my last wish to see this money
distributed to victims of the flood in Philippines and other charity
organization.
Because relatives and friends have plundered so much of my wealth since
my illness, I cannot live with the agony entrusting this huge responsibility
to any of them.

Please, I beg you to help me collect the deposit
and distribute it accordingly. Use your judgment to distribute the
money generated from the sales and keep 20% of it to yourself. Feel
free to reimburse yourself when you have the money for any cost you in
cure during the process of collecting and distributing the money. If
you are willing to help, please reply as soon as possible to.

May the good lord bless you and your family.

Regards,
Isabel Hutchinson

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