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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: "Mr. Donald Cox" <coxdonald72@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: mrdonald_cox@hotmail.com
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 2015 23:17:04 +0100
Subject: Money Transfer MTCN For You.


- This mail is in HTML. Some elements may be ommited in plain text. -

From: Mr. Donald Cox
Western Union Agent
This is inform you that the Cheque of your entitled Funds of US$2,500,000 was deposited with Western Union and we were instructed to send your Funds to you. We are aware you have been into this transaction for some time and we were instructed by your client to remit your Funds to you. Therefore, the Funds will be released to you bit by bit.
After the plenary meeting today the sum of US$7,500 have been wired to you via Western Union and below is the MTCN :7549073456 to enable you withdraw the money from any western Union branch of your choice. You are advice to respond to this message to enable us confirm that you are the rightful person to receive this Funds. We have your name and details on our file as the beneficiary of this US$2,500,000. Please immediately confirm to this office that you are ready to receive this Funds because we will send you the whole Funds bit by bit. We will send you the next US$7,500 immediately you respond to the message.
We want to assure you that all the Funds must be wired to you on daily basis but we are particularly interested in your confirmation because we don't want to wire the Funds to the wrong person. We expect your urgent response today to enable us send you the sender's name and address for the first pick up of your Fund.
Yours Sincerely
Mr. Donald Cox
Western Union Agent

Anti-fraud resources: