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: Chantal Colins <amaplacanau@hotmail.fr>
Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2014 13:49:22 +0200
Subject: =?windows-1256?Q?Thank_You_?= =?windows-1256?Q?For_Urgent?=
=?windows-1256?Q?_Respond=FE=FE?= =?windows-1256?Q?=FE?=

Dear Friend,

I am sorry
for this interruption. I have no other way to reach you than this ways
if the contents here under are contrary to your moral ethics. Please
accept my apology, but please treat with absolute secrecy and personal.

With
due regards, my name is Chantal Colins, a banker by profession in Côte
d'Ivoire and currently holding the post of an Auditor in Accounting unit
of my bank.

There is a draft account opened in my bank in 1997
by a long-time customer of our bank, a National of your country. He was a
Ceo of a textile industries across Africa with shares at Kruger mining
company here in Côte d'Ivoire, he was also a geologist and a mining
consultant to several other mining conglomerates operating in Côte
d'Ivoire, china, Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Vietnam all in
Asia.

He passed away on November 16th 2009 by car accident with
his wife and two children, they died along Côte d'Ivoire Abidjan road
leaving nobody as the next of kin of his account after his death. The
amount in this account is currently $9,625,370.00.
I want to present
you as the foreign representative/personal manager of the deceased
person as I will use my position and influence in my bank to make sure
they release this money to you for us to share .

Yours Sincerely

Chantal Colins.

Anti-fraud resources: