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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: "Sgt. Paul Ricardo" <sgt.pricardo88@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2014 01:35:56 -0700
Subject: Dear Investor,

Dear Investor,

I am Sgt. Paul Ricardo,a Brazilian customs attache in charge of the
Nigerian customs border patrol team between the Nigerian border State
of Borno and Chad Republic.

We intercepted a truck carrying a large quantity of pure Gold
measuring about 680 kilograms of refined gold contained in 10 metal
boxes each weighing 68 kilograms. The driver of the truck confessed
being hired by a foreign merchant to cross the truck to Chad before he
was killed by the boko haram bomb blasts soon after meeting him. The
driver of the truck also died from serious wounds he sustained during
the blast soon after he was arrested. However,we discovered on further
close examination that one of the boxes contained crisp notes of
dollars totaling about U$30Million United States Dollars.

The dollar notes were defaced to look like photo film products to
avoid detection on transit during security checks. However,on the 11th
day of December,2013, I personally way-billed this box to a security
company in London for safe-keeping and had an agreement with them to
keep it just for only Six Months to allow me to reach the right
beneficiary. The box was deposited, not disclosing the real contents
to the security company out of fear that they might tamper with the
money contained there-in.

For this reason, I told the store-keeper that it was the personal
belongings to an accident victim of one of the boko haram sector bomb
blasts at Borno state in that Month. The duration of the box is due
next Month 18th, and they have written me to present the beneficiary
of the box to come and carry it or they will return it to Nigeria, not
later than two weeks from today.

If you allow me present you as the beneficiary of the box, so that you
can visit the security company in London and take the box to your
Country for banking, you will have a 30% of the total cash and then
keep the rest for me for investment.

Just write me back quickly for further details within 3 Days of your
receipt of this information. Please treat this as very urgent and of
utmost secrecy.

Regards,

Sgt.Paul Ricardo.

Anti-fraud resources: