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: miss Mercy <smoran@metromarketing.org>
Reply-To: <mercy.ayola@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2017 02:07:28 -0700
Subject: hello!!

i
My name is Miss Mercy Ayola, I am a deaf girl the only Daughter of my late parents Mr and Mrs Fred Ayola. My father was a highly reputable business man (A COCOA DEALER) who operated in the economic capital of (west African Island) during his days. It is sad to say that he passed away mysteriously in France during one of his business trips abroad in October 2016.Though his sudden death was linked or rather suspected to have been masterminded by an uncle of his who traveled with him at that time. But God knows the truth! My mother died when I was just 6 years old, and since then my father took me so special.
Before his death on October, 2016 he called the secretary who accompanied him to the hospital and told him that he has the sum of 28.5 Million (TWENTY EIGHT MILLION, FIVE HUNDRED UNITED STATES DOLLARS) left in a financial firm. I am a deaf girl and a university undergraduate and really don't know what to do, I want an account overseas where my inheritance fund can be transfer and after the transaction, I will come over to your country so that you can start investing my funds in your project.
This is because I have suffered a lot of set backs as a result of incessant political crisis here in West Africa. The death of my father actually brought sorrow to my life. I am in a sincere desire of your humble assistance in this regards, I wish to invest under your care please. Your suggestions and ideas will be highly regarded. I will give you 30% of the total sum for your assistant provided while the balance of 70% will be invested in your country under your care.
Please, Consider your help and get back to me as soon as possible so that I can give you the details of the transaction.
Best regards,
Miss Mercy Ayola

Anti-fraud resources: