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: "Timothy Freshwater" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <tf4@tm4cg.org>
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2014 21:42:41 +0100
Subject: RE: PLEASE TREAT WITH UTMOST CONFIDENTIALITY

Dear Sir,

I have just read your email and I am grateful that you are a kind Man with good heart. From the content of your mail, it is clear that you are a Man that is not likely to make mistake and this gives me sense of security in your capability to handle this discreet project.

However; I need you to understand that despite all the success we are going to achieve in this project, there are going to be great challenges and I want you to have courage, understanding and commitment as my partner. Let me begin by introducing myself to you, I am a professional Banker with great work ethics. I am married with Two beautiful daughters and I have been in the banking industry for the past 27 years. It is with great privilege that I will be sharing a lot of confidential details with you and I need your utmost sincerity to embark on this project.

Like I explained on my previous email, my late client Hughes Okkas was a property magnate with huge sum of funds in my Bank AND from all indications following successful investigation from the Bank there are no heir/beneficiary to this huge sum, I have been asked by my Bank to close this case file and ensure the funds are claimed within a specific period of time and this is where I need you.

Please confirm you are ready to adhere strictly with my instructions and ready to assist and execute this project to completion, I would like to also inform you that there are no risk whatsoever attached to this project and I need your total commitment and honesty.

As soon as I receive your immediate response; I will proceed with all legal matters and ensure we agree together as partners. Once again, I am honored over your respond and I accept this with utmost dignity.

I look forward to your kind response and I hope you are having a wonderful week.

Yours Sincerely,

Timothy Freshwater
Tel: +852-5808-6553
Email:tf4@tm4cg.org

Anti-fraud resources: