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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: Andrew Dell <andrewdell45@esc17.net>
Reply-To: andrewdell45@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2017 21:35:58 -0700
Subject: Re:Check My Proposal

My Dear,

I am Mr. Andrew Dell, a banker to Late Mr. Andrian Vasile, a national of your country (ROMANIA), and a Gold Merchant here in South Africa. Here in after shall be Referred to as my client. On 27th May 2010, my client, His wife and their only Child were involved in a car accident. All occupants of the vehicle unfortunately lost their lives. Since then I have made several inquiries to locate any of my clients extended relatives to act as next of kin to his funds in a bank here in South Africa and this attempt has proved to be unsuccessful.

After these several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to track His last name over the Internet and failed again, I went to the Johannesburg chambers of commerce and the department of trade and industry to seek information of people with same last name.
With the information I got from the brochure at the above offices, I decided to write and mail you this letter.

I have contacted you to assist in repatriating the money behind by my client before they get confiscated or declared unserviceable by the bank here. These huge deposits were lodged particularly, with the" HSBC Johannesburg South Africaā€¯ A prime commercial Bank. Where my client had an account valued at about US$ 11 million. The Bank has issued a notice to provide the next of kin or have the account forwarded to the federal treasury.
Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for over 3 years now, I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin of the deceased since you have the same last name, so that the proceeds of this account valued at US$11 million can be paid to you. I will procure all necessary legal documents that can be used to back up any claim we may make, as I have worked in the same branch in the past and still have colleagues there. I intend to offer you 45% of the total sum.

All I require is your honest cooperation to enable this deal through. I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law.

Please contact me on the above telephone and email address for better explanation, if you have interest on the deal.

Best Regards,
Andrew Dell

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