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: UN RELIEF <unrelief@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 07:25:18 -0700
Subject:

Dear Beneficiary,

It is noted that scam crime is on the increase across the World and investigations by UN revealed that several people who have fallen victim to scam crime are usually left either bankruptcy, deserted by families, sick or even dead.

To have a peaceful and healthy society, UN in collaboration with the World Bank as co sponsors, have began implementing the FBI recommendations to bring relief to the victims. Hence a compensation of USD3,500,000.00 to each victim.

We need your information that will enable us certify the report of your involvement from our local office in Africa and banking information to receive your compensation.

Congratulations.

Kenny H. Pork.
UN.

Anti-fraud resources: