419 scam: "Mr. John William" <mr.johnwilliam913@yahoo.com> Hello

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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:

This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "million british pounds" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- ",000,000" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "dormant account" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
This email message is a next of kin scam.

Fraud email example:

From: "Mr. John William" <mr.johnwilliam913@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: mrj232w@yahoo.com
Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2013 22:40:51 +0100
Subject: Hello

Hello,
I wish to inform you that this letter is not a hoax mail and I urge you to
treat it serious. I am Mr. John William an investment consultant working in
one of the banks here in UK. During one of our periodic auditing I
discovered a dormant account with holding balance of 15,000,000 (Fifteen
Million British Pounds) on further investigation I discovered that this
account belongs to Late Mr. Cecil Rhodes, who unfortunately died without a
[Heir/WILL] hence the money is floating and if I do not remit this money
out urgently it will be forfeited for nothing.

The account has no other beneficiary and my investigation proved to me as
well that this account is a secret account. No other person knows about
this account or any thing concerning it. I wish to transfer this money into
a safe foreigners account abroad. But I don't know any foreigner; I am only
contacting you as a foreigner because this money cannot be approved to a
local person here, but to a foreigner who has information about the
account. which I shall give to you upon your positive response.

This fund has not been operated for the past 2 years now. As at this
moment, I am constrained to issue more details about this business until
your response is received. I look forward to hearing from you as soon as
possible if you are interested, as well on replying send me the followings:
Bank Name:.................
Bank Address:.............
Account No:.............even if it is an empty existing account is ok
Beneficiary Name:.....
Swift Code:.......
Age and Sex:.....
Occupation:........
Private phone numbers:..for easy communication.
Routing Number: .......
State & Country:....
Thank you for your time and attention.
Warmest regards,
Mr. John William.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam