joewein.net   joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days
  jwSpamSpy

Home
About Us
Spam
419/Nigeria
Fraud
Contact

"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: "Salim Zaid" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <salimzaid700@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 27 May 2022 21:34:38 -0500
Subject: from Salim Zaid

Attn:

I am Mr. Salim Zaid, Syria / English citizen and Principal assurance
manager in a firm in Europe. Mr. Mohammed Raji a
staff of Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Company got in touch with me on an
investment which was placed under our banks management some years ago.I
would respectfully request that you keep the contents of this mail
confidential and respect the integrity of the information you come by as a
result of this mail. I contact you independently of our investigation and
no one is informed of this communication. I would like to intimate you
with certain facts that I believe would be of interest to you. In 2010,
the subject matter;

Mr. Mohammed Raji came to our bank to engage in business discussions with
our private banking division. He informed us that he had a financial
portfolio of $75, 000, 000, 00 (Seventy-Five Million United States dollars),
which he wished to have us turn over (invest) on his behalf. I was the
officer assigned to his case; I made numerous suggestions in line with my
duties as the de-facto chief operations officer, especially given the
volume of funds he wished to put into our bank.We met on numerous
occasions prior to any investments being placed.

He later asks the business to be close because he wants to move the funds to
another country for investment. The funds was moved to a private finance
company who are specialist banks that accept deposits from high net worth
individuals and blue chip corporations that handle valuable products or
undertake transactions that need immediate access to cash. Mr. Mohammed
Raji told me he wanted the money there as soon as he got into the country.
This was the last communication we had; this transpired last 2010, we
later got a call from the finance Company informing us about the
inactivity of that particular portfolio.

I was the only one who knew about the deposit, and I could not understand why
Mr. Mohammed Raji had not come forward to claim his deposit.

The disappearance of Mr. Mohammed Raji which was later confirmed that he
was killed in one of the bomb attacks in Iraq. This bank has spent
great amounts of money trying to track this man's family with no family.

My proposal is I want to introduce you to the bank as the
next of kin in a position to instruct the Finance company to release the
deposit to you as the closest surviving relation.

Upon receipt of the deposit, I am prepared to share the money with you.
That is: I will simply nominate you as the next of kin and have them
release the deposit to you.25% of the total fund will be given to you for
your position as the next of kin. while I will keep the 75% for my retirement.

I would have gone ahead to ask the funds be released to me but that would
have drawn a straight line in my involvement in claiming the deposit.
I will then officially communicate with the Finance company and instruct them
to release the deposit to you which they will gladly do.

I am aware of the consequences of this proposal. So I ask
that if you find no interest in this project that you should discard this
mail. I ask that you do not be vindictive and destructive.

Such opportunities only come one's way once in a lifetime.
I cannot let this chance pass me by, for once I find myself in total
control of my destiny.

If you give me positive signals, I will initiate this process towards a
conclusion. I will send you a copy of my identity after I have your full consent.

I await your response.

Best Regards
Salim Zaid.

Anti-fraud resources: