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: "maryann larry" <maryannlarry054@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 15 May 2014 05:13:16 +0700
Subject: Good day



Hello,

I am writing this mail to you With due respect trust and humanity, i
appeal to you to exercise a little patience and read through my letter. I
feel quite safe dealing with you in this important business having read
through your mail.
Honestly i am writing this mail to you with pains, tears and sorrow from
my heart, i will really like to have a good relationship with you, i
decided to contact you due to the urgency of my situation.

My dear i am from Cote d`Ivoire but i am in the refugee camp Banjul Gambia
presently due to the war that was fought in my country. I am asking for
your assistance so that i can recover my inheritance funds which my late
father deposited for me in a bank.

Dear, i am the only daughter of late Col. Dominic Larry, my father died
during the crisis in my country. My Late father was a successful business
man and one of the leading politicians in my country. My father was
unlucky to be among those that were killed.

On that very day i was just like a person whose life has finished on
this earth. Darling in fact, i do not like telling this story because it
cause me a lot of cries all the day.

However, it was by the help of United Nation Humanitarian Services that
i was being helped and brought here in Banjul Gambia refugee camp.

On my coming to Gambia, i took along with me documents of my father which
is in my position now. So my dear i am asking for your assistance in the
area of my future investment and also for a help handover of some huge
amount of money in my possession. This money is my inheritance (US$ 7.9
Million) is deposited in a bank some years ago by my father he made me
the sole beneficiary . I am now asking you to stand on my behalf to make
this claim since the bank said that they will not deal with me directly
because of my refugee status. I want you to stand as my friend or my
partner oversea so that we can get this money and use it together for
investment purpose.

I have no other person as family, the only person i have now is Pastor
John Maxwell who is the Reverend pastor of the (church of God ) here in
the camp, he has been very good to me since l came here but l am not
living with him, l am living in the women hostel because the camp have
two hostels one for men the other for women. .

I have got in touch with this bank and made them to know about my plan of
withdrawing this money, so they have acknowledged it with all their
confirmation. However, they advised me to get in touch with a very
responsible person who will stand on my behalf as my trustee in regards to
this money since l am presently of a refugee over here and wouldn't be
permitted to handle this amount of money, they also let me know about the
bond which they signed with my father that the money will be handled to me
in bulk amount.

I will be waiting to hear from you soonest. It will be a dream come
through if you can be of help to me. I will love you and i mean it and
that is why i tell you this so that you can help me and after i
can come and join you over there for proper investment with you as
soon as the money is transferred into your account. My dear, have a very
nice day.

Hoping to hear from you soonest,
Yours sincerely,
maryann Larry

Anti-fraud resources: