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: "Lt. GEN LAURA J. RICHARDSON" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <genlaura_jrichardson@aol.com>
Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2018 04:14:09 +0800
Subject: Urgent Respond Needed!

From: LT.GEN Laura J.Richardson
Reply-To: genlaura_jrichardson@aol.com


Good day friend,

I apologize to encroach into your privacy in this manner, I got your contact from a directory on the internet here in Kabul afghanistan. I find it pleasurable to offer you my partnership in business and i pray at this time that, your response will help me achieve my goal .I am Lt.GEN Laura J. Richardson, Female an officer in the US Army presently serving in the Military with the Peace keeping force in Kabul, Afghanistan.i urgently need your assistance in claim and safe keeping of $2.5 Million USD in a security vault in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
I need your help in claim and safe keeping of two military trunk boxes containing the sum of $2,500,000.00 (Two Million, Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) which was moved from Kabul, Afghanistan to Phnom Penh, Cambodia , through a special arrangement with the United Best Express Courier Cargo Company. I received an e-mail from the Courier vault this morning to come in claim of the consignment I deposited with them since 17-06-2017 and I have just two weeks from now to claim these funds.
I don't have any family back in the U.S and its difficult for me to travel to Phnom Penh, Cambodia within the time frame in claim of the fund with the Courier company and thats why am contacting you. Please assure me of your keeping this topmost secret to protect my job with the US Monitoring and Peace-Keeping mission and kindly furnish me with your datas below.

Full names:
Occupation:
City/Country:
Direct phone:
Any form of ID:

Please reply soon.
Regards,
Lt.Gen Laura J.Richardson

Anti-fraud resources: