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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: Susan Lekal <slekal@hotmail.fr>
Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2013 16:05:00 +0200
Subject: =?windows-1256?Q?YOUR_ASSIS?= =?windows-1256?Q?TANCE_NEED?=
=?windows-1256?B?RUT+/v7+/g==?=

Dear Respected Sir / Madam,
Please kindly accept my apology for sending unsolicited mail to you. I believe you are a highly respected personality, considering the fact that I sourced your profile from a human resource profile database on your country. I want you to know that the essence of this message is strictly confidential and for mutual benefits between you and I and nothing more.
For introduction, My name is Mrs. Susan Lekal, a Banker and the Personal Account officer to Late Engr. Alex Milkovic, a national of your country, who used to work as the Director of Societe Nationale pour la Promotion Agricole (SONAPRA), the major national cotton production company in Benin Republic.
On Friday, 26th May 2007, my client, His wife and their three Children were involved in a car accident along express-high way. Unfortunately, they all lost their lives. Since then I have made several enquiries to your Embassy to locate any of my client extended relatives, this has also proved un successful. I contacted you to assist in repatriating the money left behind by my client before they get confiscated or declared unserviceable by the Bank here. These huge deposits were lodged particularly with the BANK in Europe, where the Deceased had an account valued at about $7,500,000.00.
After these several unsuccessful Attempts, I decided to track His last name over the Internet, Since I have been unsuccessful in Locating the relatives for over 4 years, now I seek your consent to Present you as the next of kin of the deceased, so that the proceed of this amount valued $7,500,000.00 Dollars can be paid into your Bank account and then you and I will then Share the money 50/50 for the progress of the deal.
Once again, all I require is your honest co-operation to enable us seeing this deal through. I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. And for us to achieve this, I need the following in formation’s from you, My private email is (slekal@hotmail.fr).
Your Full Name and Address,Your Age, Occupation and Position,Your Telephone and Mobile for Communication Purpose.
Looking forward to hear from you.

Best Regards,Mrs. Susan Lekal..

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