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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: FRANK Jason <frankj629@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2023 05:29:48 -0700
Subject: HELLO

Dear Friend,

I am barrister Frank Jason, the Legal Adviser and counsel to Late Engineer
Michael Cole, an expatriate contractor who used to work in the United
Kingdom. Thereafter, shall be referred to as my late client. my client and
entire family traveled to Barbados to visit family members and from there
to travel to Greece for Holiday but unfortunately, my client and his entire
family died in a plane crash in Barbados on board a plane traveling to
Greece.

He was a well-known philanthropist before he died. He made a Will stating
that Ten Million United States Dollars should be donated to any
Philanthropist of our choice overseas. We have made a random draw where
your name and e-mail address was picked as the beneficiary. I am
particularly interested in securing this money from the Finance Company,
because they have issued a notice instructing us to produce the beneficiary
of this fund within two weeks or else the money will be Confiscated and
credited to the treasury as per law here. It is my utmost desire to execute
the Will of our late client in your favor and therefore, you are required
to contact me immediately to start the process of sending this money to any
or your designated official bank account.

I urgently request you to contact me immediately for further details
bearing in mind that the Bank has given us a date limit. I await your
urgent response for us to proceed.

Sincerely,

Frank Jason
Attorney at Law

Anti-fraud resources: