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: "Mustapher Dangote" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <the.presidency@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 17:24:33 +0100
Subject: PAYMENT UPDATE

Attention!!!
 
Dear Sir/Madam 
                                    
Your outstanding contract/inheritance entitlement has received attention of office of the presidency on foreign financial matters and also in line with the meeting held on Friday August 8, 2014 between office of the presidency on foreign financial matters and the federal executive council, I write to officially inform you that your contract/inheritance entitlement valued at One Million Six Hundred Thousand United States Dollars (USD1.6M) has been approved for immediate payment to you. You are required to send your means of identification; first three pages of your international passport or driver’s license and as well as your contact telephone number for onward submission to the financial institution assigned to handle the payment exercise on behalf of the federal government of Nigeria.
 
Be informed that this message supersedes every other message you must have received in the past concerning your contract/inheritance entitlement.
Regards,
Mr. Mustapha Dangote
For: Office of the Presidency
Foreign Financial Matters
 

Anti-fraud resources: