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: "Mark Duke" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <petyetget@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 15 May 2016 22:56:32 -0700
Subject: Investment Partnership

Dear  Friend,
 
My name is Dr. Mark Duke, a banker and manager of Audit & Accounts department in our bank. I am the account officer to one of our late customers, who was involved in a car accident on the 31st of October 2003, He died with his wife and Daughter along Kara-Sokode expressway while arriving from Holiday to Lome.
 
Now I decided to appoint you as the next of kin in order to claim the deposit fund with our bank which is at a summary of US$3.5 million (Three Million five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) I need your assistance to enable the money transfer into your nominated bank account. If you are to cooperate with me, get back to me as soon as possible.
 
Remember, this is 100% risk free.
 
Regards
Dr. Mark

Anti-fraud resources: