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: MICHAEL MICHAEL <michaelpower200@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2014 11:44:40 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: REPLY


Hello, How are you doing today, I hope all is well with you ? My name is Michael Brown a staff of HSBC Bank from United Kingdom. You may ask how I got your contact, well i saw your contact during my private search and i have a deep believe that you will be honest, committed and capable of assisting me in transferring seven million five hundred thousand ($7.5 million) United States dollarsbelonging to Lawton Robert from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, who was among the passengers that boarded the crashed MH370 Malaysia Airline that disappeared from the Malaysian air space on the 8 March, 2014.
This money was embezzled by the victim and was deposited to HSBC Bank in Malaysia. He flew and held a meeting with an insider in the Bank to help him transfer the money to China. Nobody knew about this money and he died with his family in that plane crash. I have been in contact with this insider in the Bank and he needed an honest person outside Malaysia and UK who cantake 30% of the money and stand as Mr. Lawton’s Next of Kin and provide us with Bank  Account  details where we can transfer this money into.
Please, Note that you are working with an insider so you need not have any fear. This deal is top secrete and should be treated as such. I'm waiting for your response so that we can proceed.
Regards,Michael Brown.

Anti-fraud resources: