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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: Mr Nelson William <nelsonwilliam421@gmail.com>
Reply-To: nelsonwilliam933@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2017 08:32:20 -0700
Subject: YOUR PARTNERSHIP

Dearest Friend,

I am Mr.Nelson William, I want to seek your assistance after my discovery
during auditing in my bank as I'm the manager of Bill and Exchange at the
Foreign Remittance Department in Banque Centrale des Etats de l'Afrique de
l'Ouest (BCEAO).

In my department we discovered a sum of $31.300.000 million in an account
that belonged to one of our foreign customer. Upon maturity, we sent a
routine notification to his forwarding address but got no response.

After some months, we sent a reminder and finally discovered that our
customer died from an automobile accident. On further investigation, I
found out that he did not leave a will and all attempts to trace his next
of kin were fruitless.

I therefore made further investigation and discovered that the deceased
person did not declare any next of kin in all his official documents,
including his bank deposit paperwork.

It is therefore upon this discovery that I decided as the head of my
department to make this business proposal to you and release the money to
you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and
subsequent disbursement, and you will be given 35% of the total amount, 60%
will be for me, while 5% will be for expenses both parties might have
incurred during the process of transferring. after the transfer is made to
your country / account since nobody is coming for it and we don't want this
money to go into the Bank treasury as unclaimed bills.

We will conclude this operation within 21 banking days based on the amount
of co-operation you will contribute.

We will start the first transfer with Eleven million [$11,000.000] upon
successful transaction without any disappoint from your side, we shall
re-apply for the payment of the remaining amount to your account.

I need your full co-operation to make this work fine.Because the management
is ready to approve this payment to any foreigner who has correct
information of this account, which I will give to you, upon your positive
response and once I am convinced that you are capable and will meet up with
instruction of a key bank official who is deeply involved with me in this
business.

I need your strong assurance that you will never,never let me down. With my
influence and the position of the bank official we can transfer this money
to any foreigner's reliable account which you can provide with assurance
that this money will be intact pending our physical arrival in your country
for sharing. The bank official will destroy all documents of transaction
immediately we receive this money leaving no trace to any place and to
build confidence, you can come immediately to discuss with me face to face
after which I will make this remittance in your presence and three of us
will fly to your country at least two days ahead of the money going into
the account. Kindly reply through my private email address for urgent
attention: nelsonwilliam933@gmail.com

I will apply for annual leave to get visa immediately I hear from you that
you are ready to act and receive this fund in your account. I will use my
position and influence to obtain all legal approvals for onward transfer of
this money to your account with appropriate clearance from the relevant
ministries and foreign exchange departments. At the conclusion of this
business, you will be given 35% of the total amount, 60% will be for me,
while 5% will be for expenses both parties might have incurred during the
process of transferring.

Thank you for your understanding as i await your urgent response to me give
you more details don't forget to give me those information below before we
can go ahead in this business/project.

Your private telephone number
Your private E-mail address
Your profession
Your country
Your age
Yours faithfully,
Mr.Nelson William.

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