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: Joyce Praise <jjbutterfy@gmail.com>
Reply-To: jycpraise@gmail.com
Date: Sat, 23 May 2020 15:19:44 -1100
Subject: PRIVATE MESSAGE FROM MY HOSPITAL BED

Dearest in the Lord,

Greetings in the name of God, Please let this not sound strange to you. My
only surviving lawyer who would have done this for me died recently .

I prayed and got your email address from a guestbook. My is Joyce Praise
from AUSTRALIA, I am 55 years old, I am suffering from a long time cancer
of the lungs which also affected my brain, from all indication my
conditions is really deteriorating and it is quite obvious that, according
to my doctors they have advised me that I may not live for the next One
Year and this is because the cancer stage has gotten to a very bad stage. I
was brought up from a motherless babies home and was married to my late
husband for seven years without a child, I and my husband moved down to
United States his home country six years ago during the time he got a
Government Contract worth over $100,000,000 and we decided to settle in the
country because of my husband's interest for America.

Not long ago my husband died in a fatal motor accident, before his death we
were true believers. Since his death I decided not to re-marry, I sold all
my inherited belongings and deposited all the sum of Ten Million US Dollars
with a Bank.

Presently, this money is still with them and the management just wrote me
as the true owner to come forward to receive the money and the valuables
for keeping it so long or rather issue a letter of authorization to
somebody to receive it on my behalf since I can not come over because of my
illness or they get it confiscated. Presently, I'm with my laptop in a
hospital here in London where I have been undergoing treatment for cancer
of the lung.

It is my wish to see that this money is used for investment purpose in any
profitable business venture and also I would want 10% of the total Fund
released to Charity Organization and for the less privileged across the
United States and beyond as I have lived in the United States with my
husband for many years .

As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of my Bank
where the fund is deposited for you to contact them immediately for the
release of the funds in the fixed deposit account.

Please assure me that you will act accordingly as I stated herein. Hoping
to hear from you soon. Please do respond to my private e-mail only at
jycpraise@gmail.com

Waiting for your reply

Thanks,
Mrs. Joyce Praise

Anti-fraud resources: