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: Father Douglas Rowlands <101.j.abdildaeva@sf.kg>
Reply-To: douglas.rowlands@outlook.com
Date: 09 May 2022 00:42:25 -0700
Subject: Yours faithfully

Good morning beloved in the Lord.
May the peace and joy of our Lord be upon you.

I apologize for the way I present myself to you. But if you take the trouble to read me, you will realise the relevance of my letter. I am DOUGLAS ROWLANDS, an old religious priest of the Holy Roman Catholic Church, from Sault Ste. Marie, I lived at 215 Pentagon Blvd, Sault Ste. Marie, ON, Canada. My illness (throat cancer) and the force of age have forced my retirement from the Catholic hierarchy.
I live in great solitude with very monotonous days. It is therefore to put an end to this solitude that I thought of enlarging my circle of friends thanks to the robotic system of selection of e-mails.

I confess that I am the sole heir of my family since 2012, counting on your great sense of dignity, I wish to declare you the rightful beneficiary of an inactive account containing a sum of money estimated at two million USD ($2,000,000) of course through my business lawyer Me. Gary Bernard, so that you can use these funds for any purpose.

I am one step away from death and I would sincerely like to do something very remarkable to a third party before I leave this earth.

My proposal has nothing to do with cybercrime or fraud.
I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely
Father Douglas Rowlands

Anti-fraud resources: