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: "Albert Kohl" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <albertkohl.lim60@live.com>
Date: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 05:59:16 +0800
Subject: Please Get Back To Me

Good Day,

My name is Albert Kohl Lim, am a Singaporean citizen and a seasoned Banker in Malaysia (Berhad office), I occupy the position of an accountant in this branch office, it is with good spirit of heart I opened up this great opportunity to you; there is a client of mine who died as a result of heart failure; because of the entire family lost their lives in the tsunami disaster on the 26th Dec, 2004, and his account of US$10.300 million with us has been unclaimed due to unavailability of a next of kin/relatives to claim his estate.

Since none of the family relative is alive to claim this fund after bank having waited until now for any relative next of kin to surface in our custody; I decided to contact you fast; so that I can present you as the relative next of kin to my late client; so that bank will wire this fund direct to your bank account. You don’t need to worry yourself in this transaction, it is not going to implicate you to any trouble in your country, and hence I will provide the legal papers in your name and favour.

In view of this, I am seeking your cooperation and understanding to stand as the deceased next of kin to enable us claim the inheritance before the period given by the bank elapse. If you are interested and in agreement with me, get back to me quickly and I will send to you all our bank contacts and the information you may need to proceed without coming to Malaysia, and be rest assured that it is risks free project and the proceedings will be shared 35% for you 55% for me and 10% for any expenses we incurred during this process and will be balanced once the fund are transferred into your account in your country or any other country you might suggest” to open a new account; because of the increase tax rate in your country.

Please reply immediately with your information including your full name, full address and telephone number for easy communication with you.

I await your prompt response immediately[albertkohl.lim60@live.com]

Best Regards,

Albert Kohl

Anti-fraud resources: