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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: James Costanzo <ubagrou@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 7 Mar 2022 13:22:52 +0100
Subject: Dear friend,

Dear friend,

I am Barr James Costanzo a legal consultant and High Court representative
based in Bolton, MA, USA. I am writing in respect of my late client who is
a national of your country who died in a car accident with his wife and two
children along West Stockbridge highway here in the USA.

My Client, His wife and their two Children died in a car accident on the
26TH of April 2016 in West Stockbridge highway here in the USA. And since
then I have made several inquiries to locate any of my client extended
relatives but all efforts was just in vain, so I decided to track His last
name over the Internet to locate any member of his Family.

I have contacted you to assist me claim and transferring the money left
behind by my late Client before they get confiscated or declared
unserviceable by the bank. The Bank has issued me a notice to provide the
next of kin or have the account confiscated as unclaimed bill.

I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin of the deceased so
that the proceeds of this account valued at (US$18.5M) can be paid to you
and then you and I can Share the money 50% to me and 50% to you.

All I require is your honest cooperation to enable us seeing this Deal
through. I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate
arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law, but you must
also agree not to disclose or pass any information related to this business
to anybody for security reason and to avoid eye brow.

As soon as i hear from you i will give you more details on how this
business deal can be successfully achieved without delay.

Best regards,
Bart. James Costanzo
WhatsApp: +1 (615) 358-8720.

Anti-fraud resources: