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: "Gudrun Riedel" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <gudriedel68@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2015 15:56:58 -0700
Subject: Charity Gudrun

Dear,
 
My name is Mrs.Gudrun Riedel a German citizen but based TOKYO JAPAN, I am a dying woman who has decided to donate what I have to charity Organization through you. You may be wondering why I choose you, I am 61 years old and suffering for cancer about 7 years ago, my husband who had left me everything he worked.
 
I have choose to donate from what I have inherited from my late husband to charity Organization through you for the good work of humanity, as I will be going in for an operation, and I hope that I survive the operation. I have decided to WILL/Donate the sum of US 106,000,000.00 Million Dollars to the charity Organization through you for the good work of the and to help the motherless, less privileged and also for the assistance of the widows.
 
At the moment I cannot take any telephone calls because I can hardly talk, and I have been restricted by my doctor from taking telephone calls because I deserve all the rest I can get. Presently, I have informed my lawyer about my decision in WILLING this funds to charity through you, and please use the funds well and always extend the good work to others.
 
If you are interested in carrying out this task, please provide the following information stated below:
 
NO 1: YOUR FULL NAME.
NO 2: YOUR HOME ADDRESS
NO 3: CONTACT TELEPHONE NUMBER. (HOME TELEPHONE AND MOBILE TELEPHONE).
NO 4: YOUR MARITAL STATUS.
NO.5: YOUR CURRENT OCCUPATION.
NO 6: YOUR PASSPORT COPY OR DRIVER'S LICENSE.
NO 7: YOUR COMPLETE BANKING ACCOUNT DETAILS ( BANK NAME, BANK ADDRESS,
BANK ACCOUNT NUMBER, BANK SWIFT CODE, BANK ROUTING NUMBER,YOUR ACCOUNT
NAME AND YOUR BANK TELEPHONE NUMBER).
 
I am convinced in my mind to use you to do this, and I hope you act sincerely. When the money is in your account, you will take 30% of the total amount and give the balance to the charity organization in your country.
 
NB: I will appreciate your utmost confidentiality in this matter until the task is accomplished, as I don't want anything that will jeopardize my last wish, Please Forward the requested information to my private email address:gudriedel68@gmail.com, so that I will advise you what to do to receive this fund valued US106,000,000.00 million dollars into your account in your country to enable you start the charity mission.
 
I am looking forward to receive the requested information to enable us proceed into action.
 
Mrs.Gudrun Riedel
 

Anti-fraud resources: