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: Melina Wojo <melinawojo@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Melina Wojo <melina_wojo@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 5 Feb 2016 09:13:52 +0900 (JST)
Subject: Accept my warmest greetings to you. My names are Mrs Melina Wojo, I live in Cote d'Ivoire, I want to entrust a huge amount of money in your care (USD 5. 5) million dollars for charity work in your country. I have been suffering from cancer I want to know if I can trust you to use these funds for charity/orphanage.Please contact me, so that I will give you more details. Best Regards Mrs Melina Wojo.


<html><body><div style=3D"color:; background-color:; font-family:MS PGothic=
, sans-serif;font-size:12pt"><div id=3D"yiv1850733601"><div style=3D"font-f=
amily:MS PGothic, sans-serif;font-size:12pt;"><div id=3D"yiv1850733601"><di=
v id=3D"yiv1850733601yui_3_2_0_3_145447543843365" class=3D"yiv1850733601yui=
_3_2_0_3_145447543843350" style=3D"font-family:MS PGothic, sans-serif;font-=
size:12pt;"><div id=3D"yiv1850733601"><div id=3D"yiv1850733601yui_3_2_0_5_1=
45447364533963" class=3D"yiv1850733601yui_3_2_0_5_145447364533950 yiv185073=
3601yui_3_2_0_3_145447543843352" style=3D"font-family:MS PGothic, sans-seri=
f;font-size:12pt;"><div id=3D"yiv1850733601"><div id=3D"yiv1850733601yui_3_=
2_0_16_145446155072461" class=3D"yiv1850733601yui_3_2_0_16_145446155072450 =
yiv1850733601yui_3_2_0_5_145447364533952 yiv1850733601yui_3_2_0_3_145447543=
843354" style=3D"font-family:MS PGothic, sans-serif;font-size:12pt;"><div i=
d=3D"yiv1850733601"><div id=3D"yiv1850733601yui_3_2_0_11_145434527542059"
class=3D"yiv1850733601yui_3_2_0_11_145434527542050 yiv1850733601yui_3_2_0_=
16_145446155072452 yiv1850733601yui_3_2_0_5_145447364533954 yiv1850733601yu=
i_3_2_0_3_145447543843356" style=3D"font-family:MS PGothic, sans-serif;font=
-size:12pt;"><div id=3D"yiv1850733601"><div id=3D"yiv1850733601yui_3_2_0_3_=
145415096824257" class=3D"yiv1850733601yui_3_2_0_3_145415096824250 yiv18507=
33601yui_3_2_0_11_145434527542052 yiv1850733601yui_3_2_0_16_145446155072454=
yiv1850733601yui_3_2_0_5_145447364533956 yiv1850733601yui_3_2_0_3_14544754=
3843358" style=3D"font-family:MS PGothic, sans-serif;font-size:12pt;"><div =
id=3D"yiv1850733601"><div id=3D"yiv1850733601yui_3_2_0_7_145414352699555" c=
lass=3D"yiv1850733601yui_3_2_0_7_145414352699550 yiv1850733601yui_3_2_0_3_1=
45415096824252 yiv1850733601yui_3_2_0_11_145434527542054 yiv1850733601yui_3=
_2_0_16_145446155072456 yiv1850733601yui_3_2_0_5_145447364533958 yiv1850733=
601yui_3_2_0_3_145447543843360" style=3D"font-family:MS PGothic,
sans-serif;font-size:12pt;"><div id=3D"yiv1850733601"><div id=3D"yiv185073=
3601yui_3_2_0_6_145414354784153" class=3D"yiv1850733601yui_3_2_0_6_14541435=
4784150 yiv1850733601yui_3_2_0_7_145414352699552 yiv1850733601yui_3_2_0_3_1=
45415096824254=0A yiv1850733601yui_3_2_0_11_145434527542056 yiv1850733601yu=
i_3_2_0_16_145446155072458 yiv1850733601yui_3_2_0_5_145447364533960 yiv1850=
733601yui_3_2_0_3_145447543843362" style=3D"font-family:MS PGothic, sans-se=
rif;font-size:12pt;"><div id=3D"yiv1850733601yui_3_2_0_5_145414249782840"><=
br><span></span><span></span><span></span><span></span><span></span><span><=
/span><span></span><span></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><=
/div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></h=
tml>

Anti-fraud resources: