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: "Maureen Abanda" <maument_art@hotmail.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: maureen20net@yahoo.fr
Date: Sat, 22 Oct 2005 14:10:52 +0200
Subject: Cimpliments

Attn:
Hello,
Compliments of the day to you. I hope you are in good health and i pray that this mail will meet you in a sound state of mind. My name is Miss Maureen Abanda a 27 yrs. old beautiful from Congo Democratic. I will like to get to know you for friendship, as such we can share thoughts and ideas interms of business and advise. I am looking forward to getting an anticipated favourable response from you as soon as possible.
stay blessed now and always.
Cheers.
Maureen


Anti-fraud resources: