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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: Stefano Fanzini <stef.fanzini@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Stefano Fanzini <steff.fanzini@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2015 15:22:05 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: Dear Friend,


 From Mr Stefano Fanzini

Dear Friend,

My name is Mr Stefano Fanzini,from Italy, a Banker and accountant with a prime bank here in Cote `D Ivoire. I am the personal accounts manager to Engr.Miller a National of Brazil, who used to work with an oil servicing company here in Cote D’ Ivoire.

My client, his wife, and their three children were involved in the ill fated Kenya Airways crash in the coasts of Abidjan in January 2009 in which all passengers on board died. Since then I have made several inquiries to the embassy to locate any of my clients extended relatives but has been unsuccessful, So i decided to trace his last name over the internet to see if I could locate any member of his family, hence I decided to contact you.

My particular interest is this huge deposit with our bank here in which the deceased has an account valued at about ($8.5million US dollars).

They have issued me a notice to provide the next of kin or the bank will declare the account unserviceable and thereby send the funds to the bank treasury.

Since I have been unsuccessful in locating any member or any relatives of the deceased for over last 2 years now, I am seeking your consent to present you as the next of kin of the deceased, so that the proceeds of this account valued at ($8.5million US dollars) can be paid to you and then you and I can share the money. All I require is your honest cooperation to enable us see this deal through. I guarantee that this will be executed under all legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. In your reply mail, I want you to give me your full names, address, date of birth, telephone and fax numbers for proper communications.

Thanking you for your anticipated cooperations in advance.

Stefano Fanzini

Anti-fraud resources: