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: William Asare <asarewl@gmail.com>
Reply-To: wlsareee@yahoo.com
Date: Fri, 26 Jun 2015 20:04:15 +0200
Subject: Greetings

>From the Desk of Mr. Williams.
Bank Manager, Ghana.
Email: wlsareee1@yahoo.com

Greetings,

My name is Mr. William Asare a branch bank manager from Ghana. After
several official inquiries from the foreign trade office of our Chambers of
Commerce and Industry, I decided to contact you directly for assistance.

I am interested to transfer/invest in your country through your assistance.
I am in Ghana presently and I have the sum of Seven Million Eight hundred
and Fifty Thousand US Dollars which I would like to transfer into your
account and invest in your country if possible.

I made this money US$7,850,000.00 out of my branch office excess profit for
the 2014 fiscal year. I choose you because I cannot be directly involved
for I am still working with the bank, I hope you can understand my
situation and assist me to receive and invest this money properly as this
is my only hope.

Please kindly get back to me as soon as possible on Email:
wlsareee1@yahoo.com

Best regards,
Williams

Anti-fraud resources: