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: Nelson Bile <3nelbile@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2023 18:47:21 +0000
Subject: Ur mail

Hello,
I am Mr. Nelson Bile, a lawyer based in Lome, capital city of Togo republic
in West Africa. I need your assistance to claim the sum of US$9,800,000
Million deposited in a bank by my late client before his untimely death
occurred. He died a few years ago. He was an independent oil merchant in my
country.

The bank has authorized me as his personal attorney to bring his next of
kin for the fund claim because he died together with the wife and the only
daughter who are supposed to have inherited this fund. He did not indicate
who is to inherit the fund apart from his immediate family that died with
him in an auto crash. Get back to me for more details.
Regards
Nelson

Anti-fraud resources: