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 about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: mringridsmith@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2006 11:00:41 +0200
Subject: Private and Confidential

FROM: MR INGRID SMITH
Email:ingridsmith555@hotmail.com
PHONE:+ 27 73 134 4080
Dear Sir/Madam

I am a staff of a reputable bank here in South Africa.
I will give you the name of the bank and other
important information if I receive a positive reply
from you. For security reasons I cannot disclose my
full identity to you for now until I am sure of your
cooperation. I work in the operations dept where I
serve as account officer to numerous customers. One of
the customers whom I worked as his account officer was
a wealthy diamond merchant from the Republic of Sierra
Leone, a country in West Africa. He lost his family in
the war. He was lucky to escape alive and came to this
country with his wealth. Unfortunately he died few
years back.

Because this man was good to me when he was alive, I
took it upon myself to travel to his country last
month, to see if I could locate any of his close
relations. On reaching there I discovered that his
only surviving uncle died a few months back. I
sponsored this trip on my own and nobody in the bank
knew I was undertaking the journey so I did not
present any official report of my findings in South
Africa.

Now there are two things I could do with respect to
the dead man's money. First, as his accounts officer,
I could formally notify the bank authorities that the
man is dead and has no next of kin. In this case the
money would be forfeited to the government after some
time. 0n the other hand, I can arrange for someone,
a foreigner, to act as the next of kin of the late man
so that he/she can claim the money. This is the option
l have decidedd to take to help myself and whoever
that God brings my way. I took this option after my
findings that this fund actually was a public fund
looted by highly place government officials under the
brutal military government. I want you to be my
partner. All you would have to do is act as the next
of kin of the dead man and the whole money in the
account will be transferred to your nominated bank
account. As the account/s officer to the late man, I
have all the necessary documents that you require to
claim the money in the account.

The total money in the account is USD$17 million. I
hope to resign my job as a banker to join you in a
viable business partnership at the eventual transfer
of this fund. Kindly Reach me immediately using the
above contact information. Also provide me with your
direct telephone and fax numbers for easy
communication.

Yours truly,

MR INGRID SMITH

Anti-fraud resources: