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: "Mr. Elliott Graham" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrelliott@mail15.com>
Date: Wed, 6 May 2015 19:24:46 +0100
Subject: Notification

Attention: Please
Good day to you my dear and how are you doing today? this is Mr. Elliott Graham from saint Petersburg custom office in Florida united state of America,  am here to let you know that we received different types of  consignment boxes from Atlanta Georgia airport with some people’s name placed on it and among the consignment boxes we have in our office your name was included, other consignment boxes  is from new jersey custom office , banks in Europe and some part of Asia including Africa is also here in our office,  (FBI AND HOME LAND SECURITY REVENUE INCLUDING THE  UNITED NATIONS OFFICE )have given order  for immediate release of the consignment boxes to the  owners  but we just want to be very sure of you and to know if you are still alive so that our office will not make any mistake or wrong delivery to someone else.
 
A day before yesterday (Mrs. Susan brown) sent to us a later stating that she was a family member of you and she also said that you are no more alive, she made us to understood that you handed over your belonging to her when you was still alive so she is now demanding from our office the two consignment boxes to be release  to her as she is standing as your next of kin but we are still waiting to see if you will respond to this email before three days time because ,(HOME LAND SECURITY REVENUE)(FBI) AND (UNITED NATIONS) warned us to be very careful in our dealings with you and mind you, that was the reason why we ignored the later from Mrs. Susan brown but we are still awaiting to see if you will respond to this alert message  and for us to be sure that you are still alive before we tell you the next line of action.
Thanks and my.Best regards
 
Mr. Elliott Graham

Anti-fraud resources: