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: eric abim <eric.abim11@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 23:46:43 +0000
Subject: can you handle this with me

Dear friend

I beg your excuse for the inconveniences that this Mail may cause to you.
My name is Mr Eric Abim. I work with one of
the local Banks here in Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire and I am the personal
account manager to one (Engineer David Martin)
a foriegn national who own a company here in Coted'Ivoire .

My client, his wife, and their three children were involved in the ill
fated Kenya Airway crash in the coasts of
Abidjan in January 2000 in which all passengers on board died. Since then
I have made several inquiries to his
Embassy to locate any of my clients extended relatives but has been
Unsuccessful. After several unsuccessful attempts,
I decided to trace his Last name over the Internet, to see if I could
locate any member of his family but all my
effort was all in vain.

The particular interest is this huge amount deposited with our bank here
, where the deceased has an account valued at
about US $17 million United States dollars.Being the personal a/c manager
of the decease's bank account, the
bank has issued me a notice to provide the next of kin/beneficiary or
else the bank will declare the account
unserviceable and thereby forfeit the funds to the bank treasury.

Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for over the past
years now, I hereby seek your consent (with
due respect and Honor) to present you as the next of kin to the deceased
since you are a foriegner so that the proceeds
of this account can be paid to you and then you and I will share the
money 50 /50.

All I require is your honest cooperation to enable us seeing
this deal through.

I guarantee that this will be executed under all legitimate arrangement
that will protect you from any breach of the
law. Please provide me with your full Name and Address,Telephone and Fax
Number for immediate
communication between us, If you can handle this with me,reach me
urgently with the information i requested and i
will at your reply send to you by fax or email the text of the application
which you will forward to our bank as my
late client family member.

I am waiting for your urgent reply.

Best Regard.

Mr Eric Abim

Anti-fraud resources: