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: Mary williams <marwilla1@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2014 22:42:29 +0430
Subject: Re:reply,


Miss Mary Williams,
Abidjan Cote D'Ivoire
West Africa.
Dear,
I am Miss Mary Williams . 19 years old from Ivory Coast. Only
child/Daughter of Mrs Anna Williams. I have 5.5 million USD which was made
by my Mother before she died in oct 2008 which is left in a suspense
account in bank in Europe.
I seek your permission to remit this amount into your account so that i
could come to your country for investment and to further my studies.
I have accepted to offer you 20% of the total sum for your desire to assist
me. Please do respond immediately you receive this email for more
information’s regarding the transfer.
My Best Regards,
Mary Williams

Anti-fraud resources: