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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.

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

Fraud email example:

From: Willies Koffi <willieskoffi777@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2016 12:14:53 -0800
Subject: Hi

Dear Friend,

Greetings to you. My name is willies koffi, i am writing from the
Republic of Togo. I am a banker by profession. I have a business
proposition for you valued at US$17,000,000.00 (Seventeen Million
United States Dollars) in my branch. The reason i contact you is for
us to work together because i need your urgent co-operation to move
the funds out of this country and i need someone with a foreign
account to be able to receive the fund, even an empty account can
serve to claim the funds. I am compelled to do this because i would
not want the bank to push the late customer`s funds into the state
treasury as unclaimed inheritance. It will interest you to note that
you stand to receive 40% of the fund upon successful conclusion of the
transaction. Please get back to me for full details.

I await your response.

Thanks and regards,
Mr.willies koffi.

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