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: "Silvio Postiga" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <sipostiga3@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2016 12:50:38 -0000
Subject: Help me acomplish My Last wish

My name is Silvio Postiga a Portuguese national,i am sick and dying...I have a huge cash deposit of Eighteen Million dollars with a finance House abroad,I will want you to help me collect this deposit and dispatch it to charity organizations,This is my last wish.Get back to me for more details.

Regards,
Silvio

Anti-fraud resources: