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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: "Mr. Barry Wills" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mr.barrywills@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 11 Feb 2018 22:34:12 -0800
Subject: YOUR URGENT REPLY NEEDED.

Dear friend,
 
My name is Barry Wills, the new Manager of Sunrise Global Securities. Actually, I got your contact information through the public records while searching for a last name similar to one of our late customers an expatriate engineer who was on contract with Nigerian National Petroleum corporation NNPC here in Nigeria for eight years.
 
Before his death, he deposited One Trunk Box/Diplomatic Personal Treasure,containing the sum of USD$20.000,000.00 (TWENTY MILLION U.S.DOLLARS ONLY) with this company here in Nigeria under better arrangement. During my checks and auditing after my six months in the company,i was able to discover this diplomatic fund deposit in disguise as family treasure instead of fund belonging to a foreign dead man. At this, i was able to keep the secret within me and was planing on what to do and how to move the fund till this thought came to my head which is the reason why i have contacted you.
 
I am ready to share this fund 50-50 with you if you will guarantee me 100% sincerity that you will not do anything that will hurt me if this fund is finally gets to your custody. I am ready to share this fund mutually with you once i have your trust and assurance of sincerity.
 
Against this backdrop, my suggestion to you is that hence you have the same family/similar last name with our late customer I will like you as a foreigner to stand as the next of kin to the diseased so that the diplomatic consignment will be claimed and released to you for our mutual benefits. This will be 100% risk free business.I will make sure that all the needful legal documents is changed to your name as the family inheritor.
 
Please be kind to get back to me for more details.
 
Best Regards,
 
Mr.Barry Wills.

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