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: "James Addai" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <addaijames853@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2015 02:38:52 -0000
Subject: I PLAN TO ACTIVATE THE ACCOUNT WITH YOUR NAME

Dear
I hope this letter meets you in good health. I am in control of
US$15,500,000.00 deposited in my bank by the Late Libyan leader Gaddafi, the
fund is being held under a Non-investment account without the Gaddafi
Family's name as the late Gaddafi instructed that the funds be kept TOP
SECRET until he decides what to do with it.
 
As Gaddafi s Investment adviser and General Manager Finance and Investment
of , I plan to activate the account with your name as the original depositor and
then process outward remittance of the funds to you.
 
You will get 35% of the total funds for your role plus investment of my
portion under a documented working agreement.
Please get back to me with your response alongside your physical contact
address/telephone number and we will move quickly to consummate the deal.
With regards,
James Addai
General Manager of Finance and Investment

Anti-fraud resources: