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: "A.M.Abdulla" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <ahmedmabdulla1@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2015 05:16:59 -0800
Subject: CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION

Greeting,

I live and work in a reputable bank in Abu Dhabi. I have an
urgent business which I believe will interest you. Find the
attached details of the business in PDF format.

For any reason you cannot open that attachment, please let
me know so that I can re-send it in the body of the mail,
thank you. Looking forward in hearing from you soon

I wait for your response, Thank you.

Regards

A.M.Abdulla

Anti-fraud resources: