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: "Sgt. Norman Martinez" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <normanmart001@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 11 Jun 2017 15:36:37 -0600
Subject: RE: Can I Trust You

Attn: Sir/Ma,
 
 
Greetings to you and your family, My name is Norman Martinez I'm a US Military officer (Senior Master's Sergent) presently deployed on a mission in Syria. You know due to my kind of work when we go for missions I mean when we go to attack rebels/Taliban's after the raiding we discover so many loots like diamonds, gold and jewelry and when we return it back our superiors they share it amongst themselves and don't return it to the government like they say.
 
We went on a mission and whiles on the mission we discovered trunk boxes and when we forcefully opened it we discovered over 18 million dollars and when I volunteered to return it my boys didn't agree they pointed guns at me and said that they wanted us to  share the money after much heated arguments, we finally concluded and shared the money. my own share was 4.5 million dollars. I was able to save the money through the united nations humanitarian service, so it was successfully saved in the united nation bonded warehouse Accra Ghana.
 
I got a mail from the security warehouse they are urging all luggage owners to come and claim their luggage, this is due to the fact that they are relocating to another region which is part of the company policy that every luggage owner should come and claim their luggage,I wrote back to them informing them of my present situation that i cannot do anything because I am in a war zone. They advised me that I can get a beneficiary who can represent me because I do not have access to money sending or receiving, I want you to help clear and receive my luggage.
 
But be rest assured that the delivery agency that will deliver the luggage to you has a diplomatic immunity which means no authority can search their luggage or belongings. So as soon as the luggage is with you I will be with you over there as soon as I get out of the Miitary base Camp. I am willing to give you 30% of the total money in the luggage, please do let me know so I can give you the luggage identification number so you can contact the security company and let them know you are from me.
 
 
Yours Sincerely,
Norman Martinez
Senior Master's Sergent of the US Army.

Anti-fraud resources: