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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: "Meng Sok" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <msok223@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2015 01:36:08 +0700
Subject: Re:From Sok,

Dear,
I am Mr.Meng Sok, the managing Director of a financial firm here in South
East Asia.
I am contacting for a good proposal that will benefit both of us if you
are interested and trustworthy, please reply back and let's benefit from
this golden opportunity.
You are my first contact, and I am contacting you because I need to do the
deal with someone outside my country for security reasons,
it's not the type of deal you let someone around you to be aware of My
banks do not even know that i am contacting you.
I will explain better the process as a banker when I see your response, I
shall wait for days and if I do not hear from you, I shall look for
another person.
Regards,
Mr.Meng.

Anti-fraud resources: