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.

 

 

Fraud email example:

From: "Mrs. Salima Bello" <salimabel@yahoo.co.uk> (may be fake)
Reply-To: salimabello@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 21:33:28 +0100
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS.

Dear Client,

We Bank of Africa Abidjan, Cote D' Ivoire wish to inform you that we have a check of $500,000.00 US Dollars that was duly signed and approved in your name. However you are hereby request to forward to our remittance department with your full name and resident address that will enable us to send the check to you via DHL.

Thereafter, you should forward your receiver information to our remittance department with the full contact address that is stated below:

Bank of Africa. Abidjan, Cote D' Ivoire.

Remittance Director: Dr. Antonio Gomes.

Tel: 00225 08 188 984.

E-Mail: bankofafrica-abidjan@accountant.com <mailto:bankofafrica-abidjan@accountant.com>

You should try and contact the above named person within 72 hours, so it will enable you to receive your check.

Finally, we wish to serve you better.

Best Regards,

Mrs. Salima Bello.



Anti-fraud resources: