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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: James Pettman Jr. <jamespettmanjr1@gmail.com>
Reply-To: <jamespettmanjr@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2015 05:17:13 +0100
Subject: From James Pettman Jr. (Investment)

Hello,
 
My name is James Pettman Jr. I am 19 years old boy. I lost my father in South Africa last year where he has been doing Diamond Mining business. As the only child, I have lived with my father since I lost my Mother five years ago to cancer.
 
 
We are originally from Sierra Leone but residing in South Africa. From all indications, my father was killed by his associates because I remember he told me that his business partners were not happy with him because he was making so much money from the Diamond mining business. I also remember he told me that he wanted us to relocate to either USA or any other part of the world this 2015 before he was shot 5 times on his way back from work.
 
 
I have lived the rest of my life since then in fear because I do not know who will come after me to take what my father left behind. I was going through some of his documents and found out that he made a deposit of $21,100,000.00 in a Financial Security Firm here in South Africa. He told me before his death that he had a lot of cash deposit in a company but he never declared that the box contained money; he said he declared the box to them as Family Treasure for export and was going to give me details but unfortunately, he did not give me any information before his death.
 
 
I have been to the Company with the documents and they have confirmed that the documents were issued to my late father by their company when he made the deposit but they cannot let me have the consignment because if my age. They have asked me to look for someone older than 35 years who can stand as my guarantor before the box will be handed over to me.
 
 
Can I trust you to help me retrieve the treasure from the Security and Financial Firm as my father’s relative? Can I also trust you to safe keep this fund and also help me invest this fund in a profitable business in your country when this money get to you? I cannot let anyone in South Africa know this because my life is already in danger and I have made up my mind to leave this country for good.
 
 
If you are willing to help me please indicate in your next mail and when I am sure you can assist me, I will let you have the details to assist me in claiming the consignment from the Company on my behalf. I have my Father’s Death certificate and the documents from the company that you can use to claim this on my behalf. I only need someone I can truly trust to assist me because at my age, I do not know what to do or where to go from here.
 
 
Please email me your contact telephone number and address if you will be able to assist me.
 
 
Awaiting your urgent response.
 
 
God bless you.
 
James Pettman Jr.
 
 

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