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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: "Henry Lincoln" <moj@jsu.ac.ir>
Reply-To: henryforlife11@gmail.com
Date: Sun, 11 Sep 2016 11:25:13 +0100
Subject: Hello Friend


Hello Friend,
I wish to inform you that this letter is not a hoax mail and I urge you to=
treat it serious. We want to transfer to overseas account($30,000.000.00US=
D) Thirty million United States Dollars) from a prime Bank here in London. =
I want to ask you, If you are not capable to quietly look for a reliable an=
d honest person who will be capable and fit to provide either an existing b=
ank account or to set up a new Bank a/c immediately to receive this money, =
even an empty a/c can serve to receive this money, as long as you will rema=
in honest to me till the end for this important business trusting in you an=
d believing in God that you will never let me down either now or in the fut=
ure.
I am Mr. Henry Lincoln, presently promoted to Auditor General in one of th=
e banks here in London. During the course of our auditing last week, I disc=
overed a floating fund in an account opened in the bank in 2000 and since 2=
004 nobody has operated on this account again, after going through some old=
files in the records I discovered that the owner of the account died witho=
ut a [Heir/WILL] hence the money is floating and if I do not remit this mon=
ey out urgently it will be forfeited for nothing.The owner of this account =
is an American and a great industrialist and a resident of Alaska State, wh=
o unfortunately lost his life in the plane, crash of Alaska Airlines Flight=
261 which crashed on January 31 2003, including his wife and only daughter=
leaving nobody to claim the money . No other person knows about this accou=
nt or any thing concerning it, the account has no other beneficiary and my =
investigation proved to me as well that the account is a secret account. Th=
e total amount !
involved is Thirty million United States Dollars only[$30,000.000.00] and w=
e 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 t=
his 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 pos=
itive response.
I am revealing this to you with believe in God that you will never let me =
down in this business, you are the first and the only person that I am cont=
acting for this business, so please reply urgently so that I will inform yo=
u the next step to take urgently. I need your strong assurance that you wil=
l never let us down, me and a key bank official who is deeply involved with=
me in this business. I guarantee you that this transaction will be execute=
d under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of t=
he law The bank official will destroy all documents of the transaction imme=
diately you receive this money leaving no trace to any place. I will use my=
position and influence to obtain all legal approvals for onward transfer o=
f this money to your account with appropriate clearance from the relevant m=
inistries and foreign exchange departments. At the conclusion of this busin=
ess, you will be given 50% of the total amount,50% will be for us.
Please advice me on your position immediately via this email: henry_lincol=
n_18@hotmail.com
PLEASE,TREAT THIS PROPOSAL AS TOP SECRET.
I look forward to your earliest reply .
Best Regards
Henry Lincoln

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