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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: "Mrs.Anna Vostokova" <mrsmaureengreaves87@gmail.com>
Date:
Subject:

Greetings

I hope you are in good health? I am Mrs. Anna Vostokova, from Ukraine.
Please permit me to explain and do not feel disturbed for contacting
you which is based on the critical condition I find myself in due to
the Russian civil unrest in Ukraine and as well as the daily life
threatening attacks by Russian Forces who are going door to door
for-manhunt against people who were working against them. I have
already lost my family, my husband, son and daughter to the cold hands
of death during an attack targeted at our home to end our family, but
luckily for me, I was not around during the crossfire, hence I was at
the hospital when they attacked our home killing my beloved husband,
son and daughter.

My late husband was a contractor in the Ukraine oil feed and before
his untimely death he transferred a reasonable amount of money to a
BANK in United State of America (USA) and the money was intended for
investment purposes. As you may or may not know, living in Ukraine is
currently very risky and for this reason I am contacting you with
great confidence in the hope of entrusting you with the care and
custody of the fund for investment purposes in your country. Please, I
would like to know how convenient it might be for you to assist me
claim the fund as a good business partner to my late husband. The fund
in question is Nine Million Five Hundred Thousand dollars (9,500,000.00)

I tried several times to leave Ukraine but I cannot continue to risk
my life to avoid an end to my family lineage and since my husband,
son and daughter are dead, I have no alternative but to place my trust
and hope in someone who is interested in helping. If you are not
interested please do not even bother to reply to this mail for This is
a very serious issue. But if you are interested reply me back

I look forward to your reasonable response and in return I will
provide you with more details.

Yours faithfully,
Mrs. Anna Vostokova.

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