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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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Mrs. Grace Aguilar" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrs-gracea@live.com>
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2011 12:15:31 +0100
Subject: URGENT.

Good Day,

Business Proposal.

Sorry to bother you, I know we haven't spoken before but I'm currently looking for someone trustworthy to work with me on a profitable project.

My name is Mrs.Grace Aguilar, I'm originally from Philippines but now living here in Scotland. I moved here to work with Royal Bank of Scotland as a Senior Account Manager in the audit department.

The reason for my email is that there is an account which was opened in 2000 with the sum of £7.5m, since then there has been no activity on the account. with the interest which has built up over the last few years, the balance of the account is now £9.7m.

Only me and a friend of mine, one of our audit managers knows about this account and we decided to keep it to ourselves, the account owner was a foreign business man coming to do business in Scotland before his death. We have no details of heirs or next of kin so the money will just end up being sucked up by the Bank.

We are the only two people at the bank with access to this information and we have decided to keep it that way and claim the money for ourselves using a third party who will take the place of the deceased next of kin.... and that's where you come into it.

If you are interested, We'll do all the paper work for you and the process will be completely risk free for the three of us. We will produce all the documents that will be required from you by the Bank as the new beneficiary.

Obviously we'd be looking to take a cut of the funds ourselves, so we propose 70/30, I and my colleague will take 35% of the funds each leaving you with a very generous 30%.

Again, sorry for intruding in your email.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THIS TRANSACTION, RESPOND BACK TO ME THROUGH MY PERSONAL EMAIL BELOW.

gracea2011@live.com

Hope to hear from you.

Regards,
Mrs.Grace Aguilar

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