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: simon taylor <simontaylor73@rediffmail.com>
Date: Sun, 18 May 2008 21:22:03 +0000
Subject: Help needed

Dear friend,

Greetings to you in the name of our heavenly God.

This mail might come to you as a surprise and the

temptation to ignore it as unserious could come into

your mind; but please, consider it a divine wish and

accept it with a deep sense of humility. My name is

simon taylor.

I,m a 65 years old man. I am British

living in Dubai (United Arab Emirate). I was a

merchant and owned two businesses in Dubai. I was

also married with two children. My wife and two

children died in a car accident six years ago.

Before this happened my business and concern for

making money was all I lived for. I never really

cared about other values in life. But since the loss

of my family, I have found a new desire to assist

helpless families. I have been helping orphans in

orphanage/ motherless homes. I have donated some

money to orphans in Sudan, South Africa, Cameroon,

Brazil, Spain, Austria, Germany and some Asian

countries. Before I became ill, I kept $5 Million

in a long-term deposit account in a finance/security

company . Presently, I,m in a

hospital where I have been undergoing treatment for

oesophageal cancer. I have since lost my ability to

talk and my doctors have told me that I have only a

few months to live. It is my last wish to see this

money distributed to charity organizations. Because

relatives and friends have plundered so much of my

wealth since my illness, I cannot live with the

agony of entrusting this huge responsibility to any

of them. Please, I beg you in the name of God to

help me collect the deposit and the interest accrued

from the company and distributes it

amongst charity organizations. Use your judgement to

distribute the money and feel free to reimburse yourself when you

have

the money for any cost you

incur during the process of collecting and

distributing the money to charity organizations. .

I,m willing to offer you a reward If you are willing

to help; please reply as soon as you can through my private email address

simontaylor73@rediffmail.com. May the

good Lord bless you and your family.

Regards,

simon taylor

simontaylor73@rediffmail.com





Anti-fraud resources: