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: felicia aaron <aronfelly@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2007 05:02:49 -0600
Subject: Peace from us



Dear friend I am Felicia Aaron, widow from sierraleone,residing presnently in republic of Benin as a result of war that erupted my country. We have presnently the sum of 19m U.S.Dollars which was deposited with securities and finance firm by my late husband before he was killed by unknown people. We need your assistance to secure the funds from the securities company and also in the areas of investments in your country .If you are interested,urgently contact my son Edwin who is presently on assylum in europe through this email address (edwinaaron@freesurf.fr )more details. Regards Felicia Aaron
_________________________________________________________________
With Windows Live Hotmail, you can personalize your inbox with your favorite color.
www.windowslive-hotmail.com/learnmore/personalize.html?locale=en-us&ocid=TXT_TAGLM_HMWL_reten_addcolor_0607

Anti-fraud resources: