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: Mr Erastus Wench <andyjerry.williams@gmail.com>
Reply-To: erastus.a.wencha@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2022 10:42:49 +0000
Subject: From Mr Erastus Wench Urgent Respond.

Dear Friend,

Greetings and how are you doing? I am Mr Erastus Wench a banker by
profession from Burkina-Faso in West Africa and currently holding the
post of Manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance
department of Bank of Africa (BOA) Ouagadougou. I have the opportunity
of transferring the abandon funds ($20.5 Million USD) of one of my
banks client who died along with his entire family on 6th December
2003 in a plane crash.

Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his
next of kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release
it unless somebody applies for as next of kin or relation to the
deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines but unfortunately we
learnt that all his supposed next of kin or relation died alongside
with him at the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim.

The Banking law and guideline here stipulates that if such money
remained unclaimed after years an above, the money will be transferred
into the Bank treasury as unclaimed fund. I agree that 40 % of this
money will be for you as foreign partner in respect to the provision
of a foreign account, and while 60 %would be for me.

There after I will visit your country for disbursement according to
the percentages indicated. Therefore to enable the immediate transfer
of this fund to you as arranged, you must apply first to the bank as
relations or next of kin of the deceased indicating your bank name,
your bank account number, your private telephone and fax number for
easy and effective communication and location where the money will be
remitted. Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or
email the text of the application. I will not fail to bring to your
notice that this transaction is hitch free and that you should no
entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made
for the transfer.

I will not fail to bring to your notice this transaction is hitch-free
and that you should not entertain any atom of fear as all required
Arrangements have been made for the transfer, please treat this
business with utmost confidentiality and you should contact me
immediately as soon as you receive this letter.

Please make sure you keep this transaction as your top secret and make
it confidential till we receive the fund into the account that you
will provide to the Bank. Don’t disclose it to anybody, because the
secrecy of this transaction is as well as the success of it.

I am waiting to hear from you urgently contact me with this my
personal e-mail ………….

Your full name..........

Home address:.........

Your country...........

Your city..............

Telephone......

Occupation:.......

Age:………………..

Sex:………………………

I expect your urgent response with much anticipation!!!!!!!

Yours faithfully,
Mr Erastus Wench

Anti-fraud resources: