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: "KEN MCKAY ESQ" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <oliviajose70@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2021 12:06:14 +0800
Subject: HELP FULLFILL HER DREAMS THANKS

Greetings my Beloved ,
I'm writing this mail to you with heavy tears in my eyes and great sorrow in my heart.I'm the Personal assistant/Lawyer to Late(Mrs.)Sandra Sharon Bricks  from American  and  a widow to late Mr.Bricks, she was 63 years old, suffered from long term Cancer of the breast. From all indications her condition  really deteriorated and it was quite obvious that she finally died of covid 19 complications 2 months  ago according to the doctors.
I have some documents related to the funds she inherited from her late loving husband Mr.Bricks  a huge sum of only $7M,deposited  in a Finance Company . I need a very honest,reliable and God fearing person that can use these funds for Charity work as she instructed me through her will, helping the Less Privileges, and 30 Percent of this money will be given to you for your time and expenses, while 70 percent goes to charities as the will indicated.
Please let me know if I can TRUST YOU ON THIS to carry out this favor for this late woman.I look forward to your prompt reply for more details .
Yours sincerely
KEN MCKAY ESQ

Anti-fraud resources: