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: "Mike Holtby" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <simonbrownofficial@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 16:53:32 +0200
Subject: Immediate Response Needed

Good day,

I am pleased to inform you that we have received instructions to make a payment of 2,400,000 USD to you. This is in line with the Last Will and Testament of Mr. Robert Johnson whom worked with us as a 'Mining Consultant' for the past 17 years. He died in after an accident at one of our mining sites. The afore-mentioned amount is the total gratuity fund to be paid to Mr.Johnson upon retirement. His attorney provided your email address as the only contact information left by the deceased through which we can get in touch with you; but that is not enough to confirm your identity.

After series of meetings, we have finally arrived at a decision to pay the afore-mentioned sum to you pending proper verification and documentation from his attorney. Therefore you are expected to contact his attorney, Barrister Patrick Bello to start your verification process to enable us release the money to you. His contact information is as follows:

Name:: Barrister Patrick Bello
email:: barr.patbello@yahoo.com


Furthermore, after the first email which I sent to you 2 weeks ago, a man whose name is Mr. Moses Edward contacted us last week claiming that he is working under your instructions and authority. He also provided the following information for payment of the money.

BANK NAME: Habib Bank AG Zurich
ACCT. NAME: Moses Edward
ACCT. NUMBER: 70221920

Please confirm if Mr. Moses is acting under your authority and that you approved that your money be paid into the above Bank account in Germany.
I expect to hear from you soon. Thank you.



Simon Brown
Chief Accountant,
Shell, West-Africa

Anti-fraud resources: