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: "Sylvia Konnan" <sylvia.konnan@hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 19 Jul 2015 08:19:42 -0700
Subject: Waiting for your call and reply +22509538026


Gooday,
My name is Sylvia Konnan, i am 21 years old girl and single, i am the only child to my late parents; I am from Ivory Coast Western Africa. My parents were killed by the rebels during the 2011 civil war here in Ivory Coast, the reason was they were on the supporting Party of the former president Mr. Laurent Gbagbo who is now in jail, you may know about this history. My father was a politician and also a petroleum Manager in Oil Company (PETROCI) before his death.

During the crisis my father sent me to France to stay until the crisis is over with hope that they will win the power again and not knowing that they will be killed, May their soul rest in peace amen. Dear my reason for contacting you today is that this is 4 years which my parents died and my father's Lawyer read my father's wills before me and my uncles, and he told me that my late father deposited a sum of US$3,500,000.00 in suspense account here in my country.

I have gone to the bank to claim the money but the bank authorities told me that I can not have access to the money in here in my country until the money is transferred out of the suspense account to another account in another country. This is my reason for contacting you today so you can help me to claim this money and transfer it to your account so that i will relocate to your country to settle down and continue my education while you help me to invest the money.

I promise to compensate you with 30% of the total money for helping me out.
I wait for your urgent response soon,
Miss. Sylvia Konnan.

Anti-fraud resources: