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: Irish Lottery Coperation <irishclaimsdesk2010@hell-world.net>
Reply-To: irish-claimsdpt@live.co.uk
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2010 10:31:49 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: {Spam?}


Dear Webmail Account User,
 
Warning Code : ACCOUNTHELPID67788980
 
This message was sent automatically by a program on Webmail admin center which periodically checks the size of inbox, The program is run automatically to ensure no user inbox grows too large. If your inbox becomes too large, you will be unable to receive new emails. Just before this message was sent, you are currently running on 20.9 GB, You have has exceeded the storage limit which is 20GB.
 
To help us re-set your Account SPACE on our database prior to maintain your INBOX, you must reply to this e-mail providing us your the Below information:
 
E-mail : ... ... ... ...  ... ... ... ...  ... ... ... ...  ...
Username/ID  : ... ... ... ...  ... ... ..
Current Password : ... ... ... ...  ... ... ..Retype Password: ... ... ... ...  ... ... ..
 
From this point you will be unable to receive new email as it will be returned to the sender, Provide the above information to enable us help reset your webmail immediately.
 
NOTE: Your Webmail Account Expire in Three (3) Days. After you read this message, it is best to REPLY with the required information to upgrade MailBox. Reply to this message immediately to Re activate your Account.
Thank you for your cooperation.

System Help Desk.
Webmail System Administrator
--------------------------------------------------

Anti-fraud resources: