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"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: "Mrs.Stella Ellis" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <ellismrsstella@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 3 Apr 2015 20:55:48 -0600
Subject: CAN I TRUST YOU ?

Dear Friend,
 
I came across your identity and contact in my desperate quest to
successfully locate the next of kin to an account file forwarded to my
desk for liquidation. I am Mrs.Stella Ellis, I work with the legal
department of a local financial   institution.
 
My job here is to see that any unclaimed account is certified and
confirmed UNCLAIMED before final liquidation   instruction is passed
on any such account file.
 
With the above explanation of my responsibility in carrying out my
duty, it became very important that I make contact  with you because
an account currently valued at USD 15.3 Million (Fifteen million,
three hundred Thousand US Dollars) was forwarded to my office for
final search of next of kin to the deceased account holder file, the
account in question was    last operated in April 2005 and by law is
due for liquidation.
 
I have tried to locate the next of kin to this account all to no
avail. In my quest to locate such person, I came across your identity.
Coincidentally you bear similarity with the identity of account holder
and this is the major reason why i    have contacted you. I have been
mandated to certify the next of kin to this account before the
liquidation within thirty    official working days,  Therefore I seize
this opportunity to make a confidential proposal to you as follows: -
 
We both work together on this file; I will use my official capacity to
front you as the next of kin to this account file.  files relating to
this account will be amended to suit this claim as soon as you have
agreed  work with me. Please kindly respond to this letter via my
private Email address for further clarification:
 
I also want to guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate
framework that will protect you from any breach of     the Law here
and in your country. I will await your positive response to this mail
as soon as possible.
 
Sincerely,
Mrs.Stella Ellis

Anti-fraud resources: