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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: alexmorris <"www."@tuba.ocn.ne.jp>
Reply-To: alexmorris <alexmorris641@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 1 Dec 2016 18:56:29 +0900 (JST)
Subject: MONEYGRAM OFFICE MONEY TRANSFER.

Attn,
Your email received and this is to inform you about your first payment
we sent to you today and once you get it, then tomorrow we will be
sending you another payment of US$5,000 until your total fund is
fully paid to you and the details below was your first payment we send
today.

$5,000 MTCN = ( 691 339 72)
Sender Name: Ezennia Ike
Text question: In God
Answer: We trust

But you can not get it without activating it from the head office for
them to validate it available to pick up by you, And if you follow it
with the last sender's name here in
(https://secure.moneygram.com/track) It would be available and you can
not catch it with your name because it has not yet activated with your
name and to activate it with your name that will cost you a sum of
$150 only just as you are already knew that the payment was not a
small amount of money so that it would not be caught by the wrong
person, that's why you are asked to pay the activation fee to enable
us to place the payment on your behalf and as soon as you send $150
to our new official counter here with the information below, your
first payment of $5,000 will be released immediately so you can catch
it, because we're going to send you another payment tomorrow as we
have no time enough to delay this transaction Okay.

Send the fee to the information below to avoid mistake,

Receiver;s mike ike
Country: Benin republic
City: Cotonou
Text question: Urgent
Answer: Needed
Amount: $150 only

Anti-fraud resources: