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.

 

 

Fraud email example:

From: "Harry Martins" <h_martins83@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 09 Dec 2005 22:17:13 +0000
Subject: GET BACK TO ME

The Desk of Mr Harry Martins
The Personal Accountant
The General Manager of Union Bank (Nig) Plc

Dear Sir,

Letter of Business Proposal
I am. Harry Martins the personal Accountant to the General Manager of Union
Bank (Nig) Plc. I want to inquire from you if you can handle this
transaction for mutual benefits/life opportunity for you and me. (30% for
you, 70% for me.
The transaction is about assisting me as my foreign counterpart to enable us
present you as the Beneficiary of the usd$35million dollars left by our late
deceased foreign customer who died in an auto crash with his family since
November 2001.
The Fund is currently in a suspense account awaiting claim, since the time
the bank made a public notice that they are ready to release this fund to
any of his relative abroad. I will give you more details about the
transaction when I receive your affirmative response.
Looking forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,
Mr Harry Martins.

N.b:Note my alternative email address,harrymartins@accountant.com



Anti-fraud resources: