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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Herv=E9_HEHOMEY?= <mediamagnet27@hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2016 06:07:47 +0000
Subject: Business-Deal


Dear Charles,

I was unable to reach you by telephone. Your phone rings. But nobody answers the call apart from answering machine that appears after a short time of the ringing of the phone. However, I discovered your email address and decided to communicate to you by email. I need your guidance and I want you to decide about this bid.

CFA-franc is symbol of our currency. XOF is the code. Just like US$ and USD. CFA-franc 13,968,034,124.38 XOF is equivalent to US$ 24,331,896.89 USD.

Just a careless mistake. Our auditor made a record of CFA-franc 6,210,952,543,788.38 XOF instead of CFA-franc 6,224,920,577,912.76 XOF. Our Government signed approval for the CFA-franc 6,210,952,543,788.38 XOF. CFA-franc 13,968,034,124.38 XOF was unaccounted-for and unnoticed up till now. That is equivalent to US$ 24,331,896.89 USD.

I want to snatch the money in a hurry. I know how to claim it and move it to a foreign bank account without attracting Financial Crimes Acts, such as Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, Embezzlement or Identity Theft. I just need someone there in your area who will receive the money.

Would you connect me with a high-quality businessman in your area that can safely look after this amount of money for four years and return the money to me after four years without argument, quarrel or disagreement? I will leave the Ministry in four years time. That is when I will take back the money.

I have business directory that contains some businessmen in your area. But I am reluctant to make contact with any one of them by myself. I feel they will not trust me due to too much scam mails that circulate in internet nowadays. I am not a scammer. But how can I prove I am not a scammer to somebody who does not know me in person in the past? This is the problem. After deep thinking, my spirit advised me to contact you to confide in you. What do you think? I need your constructive advice.

hhnote@yahoo.com
hhnote@hotmail.com

Write to me through this two email addresses. These are my specialized personal email addresses. I monitor the two email addresses often. I will see your message without delay if you send to the two email addresses.

Yours sincerely,

Hervé Hèhomey


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