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: "private email" <way2012in@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: way2005in@myway.com
Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2005 09:10:27 +0200
Subject: REPLY IMMEDIATELY


FROM: Ed Harriman
AUDITOR GENERAL
First National Bank
6th floor, 1 First Place
Cnr Simmonds & Pritchard Street
Johannesburg, Gauteng
South Africa.

Attn:,

RE:TRANSFER OF USD168,559,000.00 MILLION TO YOUR ACCOUNT.

I feel quite safe dealing with you in this important business.Though, this
medium (Internet) has been greatly abused, I choose to reach you through it
because it still remains the fastest medium of communication. However, this
correspondence is private, and it should be treated in strict confidence.

At first I will like to assure you that this transaction is 100% risk and
trouble free to both parties.

In order to transfer out USD168,559,000.00{ One hundred and sixty eight
million five hundred and fifty nine thousand U.S dollar Only } from our bank
here in South Africa. The fund for transfer is of clean origin. The owner of
the fund is a foreigner, a program leader who was believed to acquire the
fund through his secret Crude Oil deal with the Former
IRAQI government.The deceased died with all the members of his family in an
auto-accident in June 23, 1999 without a WILL. The amount involved is
USD168,559,000.00

I want to transfer this money into your account as the foreign beneficiary
of the fund. I know that this letter will come to you as a surprise as we
don't know ourselves before, BUT BE SURE THAT IT IS REAL AND A GENUINE
BUSINESS. I CONTACT YOU BELIEVING THAT YOU WILL NOT LET ME DOWN ONCE THE
FUND GOES INTO YOUR ACCOUNT.

Let me hear from you.

Regards,
Ed Harriman
way2005in@excite.com
way2005in@myway.com

_________________________________________________________________
Use Dynamic Backgrounds and send Voice Clips - MSN Messenger - FREE
download. http://messenger.msn.co.za?DI=1054&XAPID=2532

Anti-fraud resources: