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: "Augustina Jacques" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <antinette200@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 14:59:15 -0400
Subject: Re:My Letter

Re:My Letter,

I know this message may be a surprise to you. It's my urgent need for a foreign partner that made me to contact you for help. I'm Miss Augustina Jacques 19 years old, the only child of late Mr/Mrs. Kevin Jacques. My father was a very wealthy cocoa merchant and politician in Cote d'Ivoire, who was shot to death by un known people.

Before the death of my father in a private hospital here, he secretly called me to his bed side and told me he kept the sum of($10,500,000) Ten Million, Five Hundred Thousand United State Dollars deposited as PERSONAL EFFECTS/SAFE KEEPING with a security company in Europe he used my name as his only child for the next of Kin in depositing of the funds. He also explained that it was because of is wealth that he was killed, he warned me about his brother and family.

I need you to help me with the following:

1. To provide a bank account that money will be transferred into.
2. To serve as a guardian.
3. To arrange for me to come to your country to continue my studies to obtain a residence permit in your country.

I will offer you 25% of the total sum as compensation for your effort after the successful transfer of the money into your norminated bank account. Waiting to hear from you, please reply me if you can help me honestly.

Yours sincerely,
Augustina Jacques

Anti-fraud resources: