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: "Walter Erich" <walterfar039@gala.net>
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:17:26 +0200
Subject: THE TRANSFER


--
FROM:
THE MANAGING DIRECTOR OF THE SWISS BANK IN ZURICH.

Am very happy to have completed that business and have
received my total sum of 20m USD.

Because of all you have done for me in the past,i want you to enjoy this
with me.

Please,contact my secretary in Republique of Benin,
he is Mr. Israel Colette. E-mail is iscolett@hotmail.fr
request him to send you the total sum of $1,000,000.00
which i kept for your compensation for all the past efforts and
attempts to assist me in this matter.

Send the following information to him for proof:

Your Full Name:
Your address:
Your country:
Your occupation:
Your age:
Your Phone number:

I have forwarded instruction to him and he will be waiting
for your mail with information on this.

Please do not bother to contact me because i will be out of reach for
about a year.

I thank you for everything and God bless you.

Regards,
PD DR Erich Farkas

Anti-fraud resources: