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: Mrs Elena Farouk <morgandestiny97@yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 8 Aug 2015 17:25:28 GMT
Subject: From Mrs. Elena Farouk

From Mrs. Elena Farouk

Dear beloved,

Good day to you, Hope all is well with you and your family?.I am writing this mail to you with heavy tears in my eyes and great sorrow in my heart.My name is Mrs Elena Farouk from Libya but I'm contacting you from a hospital where I wrote this mail in tears hoping to let you know of my ordeal.I use to be married to the late Mr Usman Farouk who until his death in October 2005 was a brokering for Burkina Faso government. We married for thirteen years with a chid of five years old son. My husband died in his office in Burkina Faso as a result of heart attack and I made a decision to live out the rest of my life as his widow.

Very shortly before my husband’s death, he made a deposit of {11.5m} eleven million five hundred United States dollars with the Islamic development bank in Burkina Faso.He made this deposit in his name to institute a deal, but the deal did not hold. I'm now the only one who knows of this particular fund and presently I'm in this hospital bed dying of cancer since the doctor has made it clear that I'm no longer responding to medications, indicating that I will not be living much longer, but I will prefer to die in this hospital than go home to face more insults and humiliation from my husband relatives who took away all my money and left me and my son uncared for.

The one that disturbs me most is my son.Having considered my position, I have decided to use you to carry out my plans over this money for the benefit and education of my son Junior Farouk,I will guide you to receive the {11.5m} eleven million five hundred U S dollars and you will take 30% of it for yourself and your family, while you will use the other 70% for my son Farouk who will be staying under your kind custody until he is matured enough to take care of himself.I grew up as an Orphan and i don't have anybody as my family member except my son, I do not wish to leave this money in the bank because of my husband relatives and it will not be in the best interest of my son who was just five Years old and too young to handle this kind of money. I'm doing this based on trust, faith and confidence I have in you.

However, if you assure me that you can handle the task as I Stated herein.let me have a positive response from you via return mail for more personal discussions on how we are going to go about it. I will be waiting to hear from you.

Thanks and regards.

Mrs Elena Farouk.

Anti-fraud resources: