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: Kenneth Williams <ftdb2011@outlook.fr>
Reply-To: <k_william1@kimo.com>
Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2014 09:12:15 +0000
Subject: Hello.




Dear,
Greetings, to you. I have come across your name and contact as I search the mail for a very good partner.Briefly I will explain a business to you and if it would be to your interest, then we can move ahead to effectively build this business relationship.I have inherited the sum of 5 million dollars from my late father. The funds had been with a bank here in my country.As a result of some agreement clause, they could not release the funds to me here locally.
In one occasion I went to the bank, a director of the bank called me and explained to me that even if I want to transfer the funds out to the account of a foreign partner, that it would take much time, lawyers and many expenses. He explained to me that the rigors are so much and most foreign partners might not be interested to involve in such expenditure because of the fear of scam.He advised me that, I can get a foreign partner but instead of transferring the funds to the account of the foreign partner, the bank will offer an ATM card to my partner.The ATM card is a PREMIUM PLATINUM CARD and this would allow us to make withdrawals of the fund in your country to the tune of 50,000-100,000 dollars per day.He explained to me that the card is good and would be sent to the contact of my foreign partner by DHL or FEDEX.
If you are interested to partner with me, please reach back to me for details and we can also discuss my investment plans.Kind Regards,Kenneth Williams.

Anti-fraud resources: