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: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: abubakr815@yahoo.co.jp
Date: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 18:23:19 +0530
Subject: Abu Bakr From Syria,



--
Good day,

Looking for kind assistance!!

I am Abu Bakr, a rebel leader here in Aleppo Syria, I and my second in
command came across some money that was parked in a trunk box and the
money is worth over $ 13 million, in one of President Bashar al-Assad's
allies house and we have moved the money out of the war zone to the United
Nations office as a medical equipment, but we are looking for a trust
worthy person that we can keep the above said money with him or her for
safe keeping pending when we are going to finish the fight here in my
country Syria.

If you can be of a help kindly get back to us through this Email, and if
you are not ready for the assistance please and please do not let this be
known to the world as this may bring division among us the rebels. If my
English is not too good please try to understand me and be of kind
assistance to us. My private e-mail: abubakr815@yahoo.co.jp
Yours sincerely

Abu Bakr

Anti-fraud resources: