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: Lucy Paul <daveawilliams61@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <lucypaul111@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 09:48:28 -0400
Subject: URGENT RESPONSE


Hello,My name is Lucy Paul. I am contacting your firm in regards to a divorce settlement with my ex husband (Antonio F.Paul) who resides in North America. I am currently on assignment to HongKong. We had an out of court agreement(Collaborative Law Agreement) for him to pay $848,900.00 plus legal fees. He has only paid me $64,000.I hereby seeking your firm to assist in collecting the balance from him. He has agreed already to pay me the balance but it is my belief that a Law firm like yours is needed to help me collect payment from my ex-husband or litigate this matter if he fails to pay as promised. Pls reply me back on my private email : (lucypaul111@yahoo.com)Sincerely,Lucy Paul

Anti-fraud resources: