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: "James David" (may be fake)
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2010 05:46:53 +0100
Subject: Contact me for more information


Dear Friend,

I am the Auditing and accounting Manager LINK FINANCE COMPANY IRELAND here in Europe. In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of €25m Euros (TWENTY FIVE MILLION EUROS) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer (MR. PHILIPS ANDREW ) who died along with his entire family in in an plane crash.

Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless some body applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines and laws but unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next of kin or relation died alongside with him at the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim. It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and we don't want this money to go into the bank treasury as unclaimed bill.
The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed after 10 years, the money will be transferred into the bank treasury as unclaimed fund. The request of foreigner as next of kin in this business is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner.
I agree that 40% of this money will be for you as a respect to the provision of a foreign account , 5% will be set aside for expenses incurred during the business and 55% would be for me Thereafter, I will visit your country for disbursement according to the percentage indicated Therefore, to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you arranged,
If you agree to assist in this transaction please furnish me with the following information.

Your full name-
Present address-
Direct phone number/fax-
Occupation-

Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email the text of the application .I will not fail to bring to your notice this transaction is hitch-free and that you should not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made for the transfer. You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive this mail.
Yours Faithfully,
Dr James David.
Send your Reply to my private email address.
Email: jms.david1@gmail.com

Anti-fraud resources: