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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: OFFICIAL FILE <officialfile2015@gmail.com>
Reply-To: edwdhill@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2020 21:57:19 -0800
Subject: I look forward to receiving your prompt reply.


Dear Friend,

Good day and compliments, I know this letter will definitely come to you as
a surprise, but I implore you to take the time to go through it carefully
as the decision you make will go off a long way to determine my future and
continued existence. Please allow me to introduce myself. I am CAPTAIN
HILL, in 4th Battalion, 64th Armored Regiment unit here that Patrols the
Helmand province, Afghanistan. I am desperately in need of assistance and I
have summoned up courage to contact you.

I’m contacting you based on a mutual business transaction profitable to
both of us at the end of it. I know you might be wandering how I got your
information, I have access to the Department Of Defense Database (DODD),
and I believe I can trust you not only as a citizen but also for you been
someone I can trust. As the leader of my unit I reported $100million
dollars out of the funds we discovered and used my position to secure the
remaining $40million dollars out from Afghanistan for safekeeping until
after my assignment as we have been deployed to Afghanistan to help out in
the ongoing war on terror.

There is no risk whatsoever as regards this money. But the most important
thing is that I do not want this money to go through bank, It will not be
safe for us, I have contacted earlier a very good trusted and reliable
diplomatic shipping company which mostly used by our forces here in
Afghanistan that send goods easily through diplomatic means and private
military way to anywhere in the world. He can deliver the boxes to you
easily at any address of your choice around the world. The baggage is
tagged as diplomatic personal effects and the shipping company did not know
the real contents of the boxes. A few friends have used this means to
convey goods out of Afghanistan because of the diplomatic immunity they
enjoy. Their charges are very high but I have already negotiated a way out
from this end till it gets to you anywhere you are.

I know you might be wandering why I did not send to my family, well I need
you to know that the only Family I have is my only daughter that is just
16yrs and my Mother whom is presently 88years and not strong enough. Most
of my friends are all in the US army, and you know the confidentiality of
this deal, so they must know nothing about this transaction. I have
sacrificed years of my life to serving and protecting my great country,
most of us have lost friends and loved ones in the line of duty, for me I
have been married twice of which none ever lasted up to 2yrs due to the
nature of my job. My 15yr old son turned to drugs as he lacked parental
guidance and eventually died from overdose as a matter of fact I can't
begin to mention all my sacrifices and losses but know that the glory of
America is built on our pain & blood this is why I decided to use this
opportunity to some fortune for myself since the funds belonged to an ex
tyrant whom we captured and has been executed by the International court of
justice.

It must be kept low profile because it is a lot of funds in the boxes!
People are dying here and I pray we make it out of here alive!!! I need
your help because my spirit tells me that you are trustworthy. There would
be no problem if you follow all my instructions carefully.

If you are willing, interested and trustworthy person to do this with me, I
will like you to tell me how much percentage will be OK for you for your
assistance in this business. And One passionate appeal I will make to you
is not to discuss this matter with anybody, should you have reasons to
reject this offer, please and please destroy this message as any leakage of
this information will be too bad for us soldiers here in Afghanistan and
would tarnish the reputation of other service military men. We need to
build trust OK! aware that the boxes contain raw cash, because I made it
clear to them that you are my cousin whom I am sending my personal military
effects, so no one knows nothing about this, and also, for security
reasons, I feel it would be best we take care of this via emails, making
calls might be risky as our conversation might be monitored or tapped into.

I look forward to receiving your prompt reply.
Capt. Edward Hill

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