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: "Mr. Ken Mckay." <ken_mck@virgilio.it> (may be fake)
Reply-To: ken_mc44@yahoo.com.mx
Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2005 00:47:33 -0800
Subject: Waiting to hearing from you for further information.

Attention Sir/Madam

My name is Mr. Ken Mckay, writing from Australia, your infor was reliably introduced to me.

I will like to invest in your country but I don't know anybody that will help me when I come
over there that is my reason of contacting you to know if you will be of assistance.

I have $18m US dollars to invest in a profitable business in your country. the money is right
now in the Embassy vault in Europe. If you can handle it then let me know so that we shall plan
how to meet ourselves to workout modalities.

I am ready to offer you 10% of the said money if you assist me in this.

Waiting to hearing from you for further information.
Please reply to this offer if you are interested to my private email address {ken_mc44@yahoo.com.mx}

Best regards,

Mr. Ken Mckay.


Anti-fraud resources: