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: "Mr. Luay Qrenawi" <Luay_Qrenawi@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 02:54:23 +0200
Subject: urgent...

Hello dear,
My name is Mr. Luay Qrenawi and I am contacting you for your
assistance in a business deal. I discovered an unclaimed
foreign payment in my office and will require you assistance
to have the fund claimed.

I intend using the fund from realized from the deal to
establish a real estate investment in your country under
your supervision as a sort of retirement job after my civil
service work in my country.

I am planning on resigning so as to enable me manage the
real estate business and I would appreciate if you can be of
assistance to this endeavor as I am very willing to go into
partnership with you. I wait to hear a positive response
from you.

Thanks and Best Regards.
Luay

Anti-fraud resources: