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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: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: mary_aloma@YAHOO.COM
Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2011 21:32:45 +0800 (PHT)
Subject: INVEST FOR ME IN YOUR COUNTRY




Dear Friend,

Good day I am Mrs.Mary Aloma an accountant in Nat-west Bank here in the
UK. I need your help to transfer the sum of Twenty Three Million Five
Hundred Thousand US Dollars ($23.5 million) into your account and I
believe that you are a reliable and trustworthy person capable to handle
this transaction and as well establish a medium size industry in your
country on my behalf as par my own percentage of the transaction. I saw
this opportunity while rearranging the old and abandoned files for
official re documentation in our branch office which I have been
monitoring for so many years now.

The owner of this account late Mr Paul Louis Halley was the seventh
richest man in France, He died with his entire family on Dec, 2003
Air-Crash. You can confirm through this website before you can respond;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/oxfordshire/4537663.stm

My investigation proved to me that his company does not know anything
about this account. I want to assure you that this is real And a Genuine
business transaction, hope that you will never let me down. At the
conclusion of this business, you will be given 40% of the total amount,
50% will be for me, while the remaining 10% will be mapped out for any
expenses that may come up during the transfer process. I look forward to
your earliest reply .

Thanks,
Best regards,
Mrs.Mary Aloma

Anti-fraud resources: