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"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: brownn williams <brownn_williams04@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2005 11:32:34 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Greetings,


Greetings,

I am Mr. Brownn Williams, the Bills and Exchange Director at the Foreign Exchange remittance department of Bank of Ghana. I am writing this letter to solicit for support and assistance from you to carry out this business opportunity in my department.

Lying in an inactive account is the sum ofUS$10.5M belonging to a Foreign Customer
Mr. Micheal Fadoul who happens to be deceased. He died with his wife and family in a fatal plane crash which occured on December 25th 2003 at cotonou, Benin Republic.

Ever since he died the bank has been expecting his next of kin to come and claim these funds. To this effect we cannot release the money unless someone applies for it as the next
of kin, as indicated in our banking guideline.

Unfortunately,he has no family members in Ghananian or Europe who are aware of the existence of the money (as he was a Gold merchant and a Contractor in Ghana) At this
junction I have to decide to do business with you in collaboration with officials that matters in the bank. To this effect we solicit your help in applying, as the next of kin then the money will be released to you.

We do not want this money to go into the banks treasury as an unclaimed bill. Our request for a foreigner as next of kin is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a
Ghananian cannot stand as next of kin.

Thereafter, my partners and l will visit your country with your help once the money hits your account for disbursement according to the percentage indicated 30% will be for you 65% for me and my partners while 5% will be set aside for any expencis that may occure during the transaction.

Therefore, to enable the immediate transfer of the fund to you as agreed, you must apply
first to the bank as the next of kin to the deceased, indicating your bank account number and location where the money will be remitted to upon the receipt of your reply.

I will send to you by fax or mail the text of the application as soon as you receive this text, I will further clarify you in other issues as it affects the business.

Please get back to me through my private e-mail address; brownn_williams02@yahoo.com or brownn_williams04@yahoo.com


Best Regards,
Mr. Brownn Williams.






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