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: "Phillip Cole" <phillipcole1@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: phillipcole@walla.com
Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 23:17:30 +0000
Subject: CONTACT ME ASAP PLS.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am Mr. Phillip Cole of the Paul Mall securities London England.

I seek your assistance in clearing a Treasure Box containing a sum of Five
Million United States? Dollars which has been dormant in our vaults in the
last four years! The said box was deposited by a foreign customer who has
lost touch with us.

Going by the usual statutory rules governing our operation, the box
shall be handed over to the relevant government authorities as an unclaimed
deposit
within the next two months, if nobody comes to claim it.

This is my reason for contacting you to partner me in getting this
money out of here for our mutual benefit.

Details shall be made available to you as soon as I hear from you.

Thanks & God Bless!

Regards,
Phillip Cole.


Anti-fraud resources: