419 scam: "Mary James"<mary.james302@gmail.com> I WILL HELP

joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet

Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days

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:

This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.

Fraud email example:

From: "Mary James" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mary.james307@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2013 14:02:38 -0800
Subject: I WILL HELP

DEAR SIR/MADAM

My name is Mary James am 75yrs old of age and I stay in white river New York City,USA.I am a good merchant, I have several industrial companies and good share in various banks in the world. I spend all my life on investment and corporate business. All the way I lost my husband and two beautiful kids in fatal accident that occurred in November 5th 2008.

I am a very greedy woman with all cost I dont know much and care about people, since when I have an experience of my families death, its difficult to sleep and give rest, later in the year 2009 February I was sent a letter of medical check up, as my personal doctor testify that I have a lung cancer, which can easily take off my life soon.

I found it uneasy to survive myself, because a lot of investment cannot be run and manage by me again. I quickly call up a pastor/prophet to give me positive thinking on this solution as my adviser. He minister to me to share my properties ,wealth, to motherless baby/orphanage homes/people that need money for survivor both student that need money for schooling, business woman and man for their investment and for future rising. So therefore I am writing this letter to people who are really in need of help from me both student in college to contact me urgently, so that I can make an available preparation on that.

Especially women of the day, who are divorced by their husband,why they cannot survive the means of feeding themselves.Please contact me and stop weeping. Probably let me know what you really need the money for, and if you can still help me to distribute money to nearest orphanages homes near your town. Now am so much with God,am now born again. May the lord bless you, as you reach me, please to remind you? I will give more information to you as I await your response immediately.

Best Regards.
Mrs.Mary James.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam