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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: Chung <chungsiuk27@gmail.com>
Reply-To: 121liuerhfei@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2023 04:53:48 -0800
Subject: INTRODUCTION

--
From the Desk of Liu Erh Fei,

Please treat this with the utmost confidentiality and if you do not
have interest I apologize for my intrusion on your time as I beg you
to forget you ever received a letter like this. My name is Liu Erh
Fei; I am a senior staff with Wing Lung Bank 112 Queen's Road,
Central, Main Branch, Hong Kong. I have a matter of utmost importance
and confidentiality that I will like to discuss with you. I hope you
will not be offended as it will be of mutual benefit to us. I am
contacting you concerning an investment that was placed under our
bank's management for a period of 18 months in 2019. A client of my
bank by the name Mr.Richard Gelb made a Fixed Deposit for this period
in my branch. If you are familiar with private banking affairs, those
who patronize our services usually prefer anonymity, but also some
levels of detachment from conventional processes.

Upon maturity, I sent a routine notification to his forwarding
address but got no reply. After some months, we sent a reminder only
to be informed of his death. On further investigation, I found out
that he died without making a WILL, and all attempts to trace his next
of kin have been fruitless as Mr.Richard Gelb did not declare any kin
or relations in all his official documents,including his Bank Deposit
for paper work in my Bank.

If you are interested then a bank account in any part of the world
that you will provide will then be used to facilitate the transfer of
this money to you as the beneficiary/next of kin. The money will be
paid into your account for us to share, We share equally (45% each)
while the balance 10% to cover all other expenses like taxes, lawyers
fees etc. If you give me positive signals, I will initiate this
process towards a conclusion and be rest assured that this transaction
would be most profitable for both of us. Private
Email:liuerhfei2@yahoo.com

Best regards
Liu Erh Fei.

Anti-fraud resources: