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: "JOHNSON JOHN" <euroafro_johnson123@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 08 May 2006 07:57:37 +0000
Subject: My Dear Hetty Ross

My Dear Hetty Ross

I am in receipt of your mail and please be informed again that you won
$1million from the Euro Afro Lottery for 2005/06 which was randomly
conducted by selecting 30,000 email from all parts of the world.

You are however required to forward to us your full names and
address,telephone/fax numbers as well as your bank name/address and account
number where you want your money transfered to.Copy of your drivers license
or international passport is required for proper identification.Copy of your
winning certificate is attached to this mail and you are advised to keep
this as confidential as possible untill your money gets to your account.

An immediate response is`awaited.

Thanks

Mr Johnson John

_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today it's FREE!
http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/

Anti-fraud resources: