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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: George Paulo <georgepaulo337@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 07:43:56 +0000
Subject: Hello!!

Good day,

My name is George Paulo, am 16 year old the only son of Late Mr Paulo
Koffi , from Accra Ghana in West Africa , My father work as a Personal
advice to Late President John Atta Mills. I know that this information
through your email will come to you as a surprise as we never meet
before, On 23rd May 2014 my father and my mother was attack and kill
by our family members due to his high position and his wealth he have
in Accra Ghana. Right now as am writing you from another Village in
Kumasi where am hiding my self because of my father brothers are after
my life so that the will kill me and inherit my father wealth.

if you are capable to keep TOP SECRET. I need strong Assurance that
you will never let me down, My later father deposited Gold and the sum
of $3.6 million Dollars in Security Company for safe keeping and all
the document to inherit my father wealth is in my name as the only son
, but due to my age i can not inherit the fund according to the rules
and regulation that glad the security company,

I Hope that you will not expose or betray this trust and confident
that I am about to repose on you for the mutual benefit of our both
families. I need your urgent assistance so that my late father wealth
will be handle to your care so that i will come over to your country
to finish my education, I will be very happy to present you to the
security company as my Next of kin.

I would respectfully request that you treat the content of this letter
as privileged and respect the integrity of the information you come by
as a result of this correspondence. Contact me immediately for more
information and to begin the normal process of redeeming the money and
the Gold before the Security Company is compelled by law to hand over
the property to the government. finally i want you to know that my
father did not disclose the content of the box which content money and
gold to the security company , he only register it as a family items
please this is for your information Thanks I look forward to hear
from you as soon as possible.

Yours Sincerely,
George Paulo.

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