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: "MR. JAMES F. ENTWISTLE" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <Entwistle-JAMES@qq.com>
Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 18:19:42 -0400
Subject: Hello

The  united  states  embassy  has  resolved  on  a d i p l o m a t i c  mission  to  nigeria  on-behalf  of  100  scam  victims  to  be  compensated  after 
police  arrested  some  f r a u d s t e r s  in  lagos  nigeria  who  mentioned  your  particulars  as  one  of  the  victims  of  circumstances
congratulations  for  your  name  were  among  the  list  to  be  p a i d   $ 5 m  us  dollars  compensation.  so  re-confirm  below  information  so  that  there 
will  not  be  any  mistake
your  full  name
your  current  house  address
current  direct  telephone
occupation  &  age
call  my  secretary  with  this  number  for  more  information:  +  2  3  4  8  1  8  7  0  2  7  7  2  5 
congratulations  once  again.
my  best  regards.
mr.  James  F.  Entwistle
United  State  Ambassador  to  Nigeria

Anti-fraud resources: