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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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Miss. Maria Fernando" <primar@primariacovasna.ro>
Reply-To: mymaria26@yahoo.com
Date: Mon, 08 Jun 2015 10:54:23 -0700
Subject: Urgent Reply Needed

Good day,

I am writing this letter to you with pains and sorrow in my heart. With due respect , trust,humanity and honesty, i will really wish to have a good relationship with you and for special reason as i have contacted you and it's due to the urgency of my situation. As it may interest you to know, i got your contact through the European business directory and after my prayers God directed me to contact personally. My name is Miss. Maria Fernando, 26yrs old female, Indonesian and reside in Indonesia. I am from a polygamous family,My mother (Mrs.Lia Sari) married my father Mr.Adrian Fernando as the first wife And I lost my mother and father on a plane crash on board with Air-Asia QZ8501,from Surabaya Indonesia to Singapore on the 28th,Dec 2014, which has made me become an orphan.

My late father was a gold miner here in Indonesia on the same hand a supplier to most of the foreign countries,he was rich but my step mother have claimed all properties with her biological children and nothing was left for me.I have been receiving maltreatment from my step mother and relatives because i am the only child to my mother,i have no relative from my mother side because my mother is an orphan. Just recently, my step mother and relatives conspired and sold my mother's owned property to an Italian Expert-rate which they shared the money among themselves and left nothing for me.

Then few weeks ago, I opened my mother's save and found the documents which shown that she deposited some large amount of money in one of the bank here in Indonesia with my name as the next of kin. The amount is US$4,500,000 (Four Million Five Hundred Thousand US Dollars) and I have made contact to the bank here and confirmed the deposit. But the officer whom i contacted told me that my mother's instruction to the bank is that the money will only be release to me when I am married or present a guardian/trustee who will help me and invest the money in abroad, Because right from time my mother has always wish i get married in abroad and i wish to accomplish my mother`s wish.

I decided to reveal this information to you with sincerity and honesty and believing that you will be kind and honest to help me claim out the inheritance money on my behalf from the holding bank if i present you as my partner, guardian/trustee and you can assist me to manage and invest it into good/profitable business investment over there after i have arrive and meet you. And we will use part of the money for Charity work to help the orphanage children in the society there.

Please kindly keep this matter only to yourself and me until we have finalize the arrangement. I have the document and information for the claim. Well, i will inform you more on this after i hear from you.

Yours truly

Miss. Maria Fernando.

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