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: "Sam Edwards" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <sammy.edwards@mail.ru>
Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2016 23:29:00 +0100
Subject: Investment Capital

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am Samuel Edwards, A wealth manager from Barah Investment Limited. I am contacting you because I believe
we can form a lucrative business partnership. One of our major clients is interested in investing in your country.
The amount available for investments is One Hundred Million US Dollars. I have also contacted 11 different companies
about this proposal and will eventually work with the most capable to handle this type of business.
My client wishes to remain anonymous in this transaction for political reasons, So it has to be carried out very discretely.
This means all the information about this business must be kept strictly confidential.

In order to evaluate your capability to handle this transaction, I need you to answer the following questions.
1. Have you handled large volume of funds before? multiple millions?
2. Do you have a bank account that can accommodate these funds?
3. Do you have any lucrative investment project (s) that require funding? Either an existing or a future project.
If you do, Please give a brief summary about it. We will later request a more detailed executive summary
if we decide to work with you. Your answers to these questions are very important for us to decide whether to work with you.
Do not be offended by my questions because I am not undermining you but just taking extra care because of the amount involved,
we just need to be sure if you are capable for this business.
If you are confident that we can work together, Reply immediately and also Provide your full name and telephone number so
that I can get back to you with more details. This message is for the ATTN of the CEO of this company only.

Yours Sincerely.
Samuel Edwards






Anti-fraud resources: