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: RICHARD HILL <richard.hill61@btinternet.com>
Reply-To: richardhillprivate40@yahoo.com
Date: Tue, 18 May 2010 18:14:33 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: HELLO JOHNSON



PARTNERSHIP BUSINESS

My name is Mr.Richard Hill, a Banker and accountant with one of the prime Banks in Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire. I am the personal accounts manager to Late Eng.Morrison Johnson,a National of your country, who used to work with an oil servicing company here in Cote Ivoire.

My client, his wife, and their three children were involved in the ill fated Kenya Airways crash in the coasts of Abidjan in January 2000 in which all passengers on board died. Since then I have made several inquiries to your embassy to locate any of my clients extended relatives but has been unsuccessful.

After several unsuccessful attempts,I decided to trace his last name over the internet,to see if I could locate any member of his family hence I contacted you,of particular interest is this huge deposit with our bank here in,where the deceased has an account valued at about ($16 million US dollars).They have issued me a notice to provide the next of kin or the bank will declare the account unservisable and thereby send the funds to the bank treasury.

Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for over last 10 years now, I will seek your consent to present you as the next of kin of the deceased since you have the same last names, so that the proceeds of this account valued at ($16million US dollars) can be paid to you and then you and I can share the money.

All I require is your honest cooperation to enable us see this deal through I guarantee that this will be executed under all legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law.

Please acknowledge receipt of this email in acceptance of our mutual business endeavour by furnishing me with the following information as listed below which will enable me work on the account file so you can now apply for the release of the funds as the next of kin.

1. Your full name
2. Postal address
3. Date of birth
4. Telephone and fax numbers.

Any other details will follow at the receipt of your respond.


Richard Hill

Anti-fraud resources: