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: James Wood <james.wood101@outlook.com>
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2016 09:00:21 +0000
Subject: VERY URGENT


Dear Sir
How are you doing? My name is James Wood, an account manager with a financial institution in Accra Ghana (name withheld for security reasons) and account officer of the deceased family (Erik van Heijningen) who died in the the Malaysian MT17 Flight shot down in Ukraine. I have a risk-free deal of Twenty Five million United State Dollars only (US$25M) from my department which was deposited and unclaimed by Mr. Erik before his death. Since the entire family died in the crash, i need a trust worthy person who can receive the money to enable us share it while part of the money will be given to the orphanage homes provided you will not betray the confidence i repose on you upon receipt of the money.
Visit the Link: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/faces-malaysian-airlines-flight-mh17-3882146
More details will be given to you as soon as i receive a positive response from you.
Regards from,
James Wood


Anti-fraud resources: