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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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: Morgan Jerome <markmoha123@gmail.com>
Reply-To: jeromemorgan35@hotmail.com
Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2014 01:57:43 +0100
Subject: GREETING

*Compliment!*












* How are you doing today? My name is Mr. Jerome Morgan, I'm chief
Financial officer, there is one of our customers who have made fixed
deposit of sum of (USD6.2) million for 9 years ago and upon maturity; I
sent the notification to his address, but no response. After few months, we
sent a reminder and finally we discovered from his business partner that he
died after a brief illness in his country home. We tried everything humanly
possible to locate his relatives or family, but all efforts failed. The
deposit is still intact with my bank and the interest is being paid into
the principal sum at the end of each year. The bank agrees recently that
if the fund remains in the account for more months, it will be confiscated
and transferred into the Government treasury as unclaimed funds based on
the law. Hence my contact you for join hands with honesty and truth to
ensure that the fund is transferred into your bank account and a bank
account in anywhere in the world can help the transfer. All that will be
required of you is to contact my bank with the information I will send you
as the next of kin or a business associate of the depositor and the fund
will be paid into a bank account you will provide. To be honest with you,
this is totally legal and 100% risk free. But the secret must remain
between you and I, I have worked with this bank for many years and I know
all their secrets and I have carefully mapped out my perfect strategies to
handle this operation successfully. The depositor is my close friend before
his death that is the main reason why I know much about the existence of
this fund and the deposit. We will also use some part of the funds to help
the orphanage and less privileged children in the world. If this proposal
is acceptable to you and you are ready to champion it with me in good
faith, kindly get back to me immediately you receive and read it. I wait
for your urgent response. Yours Sincerely, Mr. Jerome Morgan. *

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