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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: "Mrs.Theresa B.Johnson" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <teresabernhard19@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2022 10:07:15 -0700
Subject: Greetings to you.

Greetings to you.
Peace, mercy and blessings of God be upon you and your entire families. I am happy to meet you as a friend, and hope you will be kind enough to welcome me with open arms for the sake of the poor and the less privileged.
My names are Mrs. Theresa Bernhard Johnson.
I am a citizen of United States of America.
I am 69 years old.
I am Married to Engineer. Bernhard Johnson, a Dutch American national, he was an oil magnate and petroleum engineer at the Ivorian oil refinery before he retired in 2017. He died in the middle of 2020 after a brief illness. We were married for 36 years without a child. I have a terminal sickness which is ovarian cancer. The gynecologic oncologist doctors in charge of my diagnosis and treatment have courageously advised that I may not live beyond the next two months since all indicators for recovery are unfavorable. I am contacting you based on trust and hope to present you to my late husband’s bank account management as the payable on death beneficiary to a fund which I intend to entrust to your care for a humanitarian project. The total amount which is currently the account balance is $6, 808,396.00 USD. Upon the successful release of the fund to you as my next of kin, 30% of the total fund will be given to you as your own share, while 70% should be used to the orphanage h!
omes and charities. But my Questio
(1). Full names:
(2). Contact address:
(3). Direct Telephone Number:
(4). Age:
(5). Occupation:
(6). Sex
(7). E-mail Address.
(8).Religion
As soon as I receive your details, I will instruct the bank to contact you for immediate release of the funds to you for the charity project.
Thanks, and God bless us all.
Mrs.Theresa B.Johnson

Anti-fraud resources: