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"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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Mr. Abdul Waheed Umar" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrabdulwaheedumar@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 26 Jan 2012 07:40:19 +0100
Subject: Classified...

Attn : Sir / Madam,

I am writing to you based on the recommendation of a friend of mine working with your embassy in Tripoli Libya. My name is Abdul Waheed Umar. I am the attorney for Saif Al Islam Gaddafi, the son of late Libyan leader Col Mommar Gaddafi.Before my client's capture, he told me about his asset which was bonded in fund, worth four Hundred and fifty million United States Dollars.We need your business partnership in reprofiling this bonded fund for investments.If you are interested in this transaction, urgently respond so that I can brief you in details. But if you are not interested, please treat the email as it never came to you.
This is confidential and must not be discussed with a third party or unauthorized person(s).

sincerely,
Abdul Waheed-Umar.

Anti-fraud resources: