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: "BARRISTER USMAN BELLO" <sylvia_eze@msn.com>
Reply-To: barristerusmanbelloce@yahoo.com
Date: Sun, 02 Oct 2005 00:25:17 +0000
Subject: Dear Friend.

Dear Friend.

Good Day,

I am BARRISTER USMAN BELLO, the A legal Practitioner in charge of legal
proceedings.
section of Inland Bank Plc. With due respect and regard, I have urgent
and very confidential business proposal for you. We are being
Mandated to investigate all unclaimed payments in the bank and during
our investigation and auditing in this Bank and by Virtue of my position as
the chairman I discovered a unclaimed sum of money to the tune of
US$15.000.000.00 (Fifteen Million United Dollar which belong to MARK
WILLIAMS a deceased passenger who died on January 31st 2000 with Alaska
Airlines Flight 261.You can as well confirm it by yourself through
under stated Website of the incident
http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/
Since his untimely death the funds has been dormant in his account. On
further investigation we found outthat before his death, he died
without making a (will) and all attempts to trace his next of kin was
fruitless and neither did he declare any next of kinin the official
document in the Bank including his Bank deposit paper in the Bank. No one
has
ever come forward to claim the fund. According to our ethnic Law of nation,
at the expiration of 5 (five! ) years, the money will revert to the
ownership of the Nigerian government if nobody applies to claim the funds.
Consequently, my proposal is that I would like you to Stand in as the
next of kin to MR.MARK WILLIAMS so that the fruits of this old man labor
will not get into the hands of some corrupt government officials.
This is simple, I will like you to provide immediately your full name
and address so that an Attorney will prepare the necessary documents
and affidavits which will put you in place the next of kin. We shall employ
the service of an accredited Attorney for the draftingand notarization
of the WILL and to obtain the necessary documents in your favor for the
transfer. A bank account in any part of the world which you will
provide will then facilitate the transfer of this money to you as the
beneficiary/next of kin. The money will be paid into your account for
us toshare in the ration of 60% for me and 40% for you.
There is no risk at all as the paper work for this transaction will be
done by the Attorney and my position as an insider of the bank i shall make
sure to see the successful execution of this transaction. If you Are
interested, please reply immediately via telephone or by email.
Upon your response, I shall then provide you with more details and
relevant documents that will help you to understand the transaction. Please
observe utmost confidentiality, and rest assured that thistransaction would
be
most profitable for both of us because Ishall require your assistance to
invest myshare in your Country.
Best regards,
Barrister Usman Bello.


Anti-fraud resources: