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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: "Mr. Vitalis Kwame" <vitaliskwame@linuxmail.org>
Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2018 17:00:49 +0100
Subject: MY GREETINGS.

My Warm greeting to you, I am  Mr. Vatalis Kwame, from Accra Ghana Africa. I am working with Financial Institution, The Xenon Investments Company Limited as an operational manager in account management section in charge of credit and foreign bills. I will like to share some idea with you on a profitable business transaction, to please take some of your time to read and understand then if you are interested you reply back to me..
I have a deceased client from America that have an investment file placed under the company management for years ago. The acknowledge about this transaction is that this fund was deposited to Bank and place the file to the Company, The Xenon Investments Company Limited, the Company engage in business discussions with deceased (Mr. Matthew Simmons).
The Board member of the Company engaged and agreed in a business discussion with Mr. Matthew Simmons to become one of the Board member, so that his portfolio of Sixty two million united states dollars ($62,000,000,00) will be invested legally here in Accra Ghana.
According to his file, Mr. Matthew Simmons was born 7th April 1943, he was the founder and chairman emeritus of Simmons & Company International, and was a prominent advocate of peak oil.  On a discreet investigation, I discovered that the account holder Mr. Matthew Simmons, died 8th August  2010.
Contacting you is to act as the legal next of kin to Mr. Matthew Simmons, as a foreigner the company is willing to approve the transfer to any reliable information concerning the fund. As a foreigner, I will give you all the information concerning the fund if you can be  a trustworthy foreigner with foreign bank account.
He has no written or oral WILL attached to the account, no beneficiary and nobody will come again for the claim of this money. It is only a foreigner who can claim this money with legal claims to the account holder which I will provide to you as i said if you are interested.
When i hear from i will tell you necessary requirement from you to start making the internal processing in the company computer data bank and file for the approval of the funds legally in your favor.   
I wait for your immediate response.
Regards,
Mr. Vitalis Kwame.

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