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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: James Archer <manuivana@net2000.ch>
Reply-To: james.archer49@yahoo.com
Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2017 16:33:30 +0000
Subject: Dear Friend

Dear Friend

Please kindly accept my apology for all of this sudden mail to you.

My name is James Archer, director of audit and accounting department
of my bank. On a routine inspection I discovered an abandoned sum of
USD 15,000,000 (fifteen million US dollars) in an account belonging to
a foreign customer , a citizen of your country , who unfortunately
lost his life and his entire family in a fatal car accident.
He died without a beneficiary to the account, my research and review
of the account opening file proved that his supposed next of kin died
with him as a result of the accident. Since then I have made several
inquiries to locate any member of his family, but all to no avail.

The bank will approve this money to any foreigner who has information
about this account , which I will give to you because the former
operator of this account was a foreigner. Therefore I need your full
cooperation in this transaction; I will provide all the necessary
information to back up the claim.

I will need your name, address and phone number for easy
communication, as well as your valid International passport or any of
your national identity card for your personal identification.

Finally, kindly reply me stating your interest, and I will give you
the details and necessary procedure to make the transfer a success.

I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

James Archer.


Anti-fraud resources: