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

Fraud email example:

From: Richard Meddings <oxfordmcmorris@gmail.com>
Reply-To: edwardjohnsongh@gmail.com
Date: Sun, 5 Jan 2014 13:29:54 -0800
Subject: GOOD NEWS

FOREIGN OPERATIONS DEPARTMENT.
Standard Chartered Bank Plc,
1 Basinghall Avenue, City of London, Greater London EC2V 5DD, United
Kingdom.

How are you doing today?

This is about the funds that were willed to you few years ago by late
Michael P. Anderson. Originally funds were 950,000 Pounds which is about
US$1.5 Million before Michael's Life Insurance Policy paid in some amount
of money to the account together with the interest generated from the funds
and presently we have the total sum of US$6.8 Million in the account which
is in your name.

All your attempts to claim the funds were unsuccessful due to the required
fees but we have a good news for you today. We have a perfect plan to help
you get your funds transferred to you without paying fees.

Firstly, be noted that it cost US$100,000.00 to pay all the necessary fees
which includes taxes before the first US$5 Million of your funds is
credited to your private account but we have arranged with a financier who
would help to pay this US$100,000. This US$100,000 may be sent to your
Credit Card, Bank Account, ATM Card or any other method necessary. You will
be instructed to return the US$100,000 to pay all the fees. Once the
US$100,000 is received, we shall clear all the outstanding fees and the
first US$5 Million will be released to your account within 24 hours.

This is very simple and it will surely happen as stated above if can follow
our guidelines.

Please, get back to me now and we shall proceed immediately.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

Richard Meddings
Group Finance Director,
Standard Chartered Bank, London (UK)

Anti-fraud resources: