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: "Luca Wigger" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <luca-wigger@myself.com>
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2017 22:40:41 -0000
Subject: Deal offer

Dear Esteemed,

My names are Luca Wigger, by this email I seek your indulgence for you to allow me give you information to
claim a deposit in my company belonging to a late client who share the same last name as you but died in
Syria Civil War. He left no clear Next of Kin to his funds in our company. Presently, my company want the
funds be declared to the government as unclaimed.

Upon a clear and legitimate agreement with you, I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin,
so that the late client's funds will not be confiscated by the Financial Regulatory Authority.
With your cooperation to my advice there will be no risk involved for this claims as I will present to you the
document that will be required by my company.

Kindly, get in touch with me by my e-mail: luca-wigger@myself.com to enable us discuss further
Do not forget that a transaction of this magnitude requires utmost and absolute confidentiality and sincerity.
While I look forward to your urgent response, you should consider that after you claim the funds,
you will have to send 30% to an account which I will provide.

Thanks ,
Luca Wigger

Anti-fraud resources: