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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: "Dr.fredrick Anderson" <massahjoel5050@gmail.com>
Reply-To: dr.fredrickanderson@accountant.com
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 00:26:36 +0100
Subject: GOOD DAY


Greeting!

How are you doing today? My name is Dr.Fredrick Anderson, I’m chief
Financial officer, there is one of our customers who have made fixed
deposit of sum of (USD6.2) million for 9 years ago and upon maturity; I
sent the notification to his address, but no response. After few months, we
sent a reminder and finally we discovered from his business partner that he
died after a brief illness in his country home. We tried everything humanly
possible to locate his relatives or family, but all efforts failed. The
deposit is still intact with my bank and the interest is being paid into
the principal sum at the end of each year.

The bank agrees recently that if the fund remains in the account for more
months, it will be confiscated and transferred into the Government treasury
as unclaimed funds based on the law. Hence my contact you for join hands
with honesty and truth to ensure that the fund is transferred into your
bank account and a bank account in anywhere in the world can help the
transfer. All that will be required of you is to contact my bank with the
information I will send you as the next of kin or a business associate of
the depositor and the fund will be paid into a bank account you will
provide. To be honest with you, this is totally legal and 100% risk free.

But the secret must remain between you and I, I have worked with this bank
for many years and I know all their secrets and I have carefully mapped out
my perfect strategies to handle this operation successfully. The depositor
is my close friend before his death that is the main reason why I know much
about the existence of this fund and the deposit. We will also use some
part of the funds to help the orphanage and less privileged children in the
world.

If this proposal is acceptable to you and you are ready to champion it with
me in good faith, kindly get back to me immediately you receive and read it.

I wait for your urgent response.

Yours Sincerely,
Dr.Fredrick Anderson.

Anti-fraud resources: