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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: "Ms.Rasha" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <ms.rashahoumam101@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2019 08:23:05 -0700
Subject: Message From Ms.Rasha

Good day,
 
My name is Rasha A.Houmam, I am writing this message to you with tears in my eyes. The on-going civil war in my country Syria has affected my life so much. I lost my family last year. My father was a rich business man before his death, he was doing oil & gas business, he was also doing gold business from Ghana.
 
He made a big money $8.4 Million US Dollar, the money is deposited with a financial House abroad and I am the next of kin but I cannot retrieve or return the money back to Syria because of the war and killings in Syria now.
 
Please I need you to assist me receive the money and we can agree for you to invest the money into any lucrative business you know for good annual interest, until I recover from my sickness and come over to meet with you.  I am undergoing treatment caused by chemical bombings in my country and I sincerely need your humanitarian understanding and assistance to work with the financial House for the release and transfer to be carried out immediately so that you will send me part of the money here to take care of my life and others that needs my financial assistance.
 
I want to appoint you as my late father business partner and my Guardian and Trustee and also send a latter of intent to the financial House so that thy will release the money to you through my instructions without any difficulties. I am willing to offer you 20% of the total sum as compensation on the successfully conclusion of this transaction and 5% for any expensis that you might incure during the course of this transaction, making the total of 25% of the total sum as your share.
 
When we agree, I will then send to you the deposit document and all other information's for the deposit of the money as earlier received from my late father. Please let me know if you can do this for me, this is my real story and I need your immediate assistance.
 
My kind regards to you and your family
 
Yours Sincerely
Rasha A.Houmam

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