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: Andre Yayih <andre_yayih@msn.com>
Reply-To: <andre_yayih@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:44:50 +0000
Subject: Hope to hear good anwser from u



My name is Andre Yayih, the only child of late Mr and Mrs Mathew Yayih, please i need you to stand by me as my guardian so that the bank will release my family inherited money to you. My father was a rich farmer in my country before his death which was cause by poison and my mother died in motor accident together with my 2 junior brothers 4years ago.
Before the death of my father in November 2008 in a hospital here in my country he told me that he has US$2.8M in a bank that he used my name as his only living child as the next of Kin to money.
He advice me that in case if he did not survive that I should not live or invest the money in my country here because he was killed out of envy of his success by our relatives and uncles that I should look for a foreign guardian in any country of my choice that will help me to secure the money for my education and future life.
Please I need you to stand by me as my guardian so that the bank will release my inherited money to you because I have went to the bank for the release of the money to me, but the bank did not want to release the money to me because of my age and the agreement my father signed with them before he death.
You will stand as my guardian so that the bank will release my money to you since i am only 20years now, secondly after the bank release my family inherited money to you, you will make arrangement for me to come over to your country to continue my education and to live the rest of my life in your country and to invest my money in your country also.
I hope to receive a reply of accepting to help me from you.
Yours daughterAndre Yayih

Anti-fraud resources: