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"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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: Wyatt Crowell <xxxx1375g@gmail.com>
Reply-To: larafarmer@rediffmail.com
Date: Sun, 3 Oct 2021 17:06:45 -0700
Subject: Regards


*FROM: Wyatt CrowellRE: [£12.5 Million]I am a newly promoted Branch Manager
of a Bank here in the UNITED KINGDOM. I got your information during my
search through the Internet. It may interest you to hear that I came in
PEACE and don't want problems, I only hope we can assist each other. If you
don't want this business offer kindly forget it, as I will not contact you
again. I have packaged a financial transaction that will benefit both of
us, as the Branch Manager of the Bank, it is my duty to send in a Financial
Report to my head office at the end of each year. On the course of that I
discovered this fund [£12.5 Million] floating in a suspense account, yet to
be claimed.I wish to place your name as the beneficiary to [£12.5 Million]
due to the death of the depositor who died along with his only daughter.
However, I assure you that this transaction will be executed under a
legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law
both in your country and here in the UK once the fund is transferred to
your bank account. The funds I am referring to is right here in this bank
floating in a suspense account, therefore I solicit for you to be in
collaboration with me to have this done.Wyatt*

Anti-fraud resources: