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: Bright Maphosa <mrbrightmaphosa62@gmail.com>
Reply-To: mr.brightmaphosa@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2023 13:19:12 +0200
Subject: Ref


Standard Bank South Africa
2 Heerengracht Towers,
Hans Strijdom Ave, Cape Town City Centre,
Cape Town, 8001
Tel: +27-730573196

Dear Sir/Madam,

I know, this letter will come to you as surprises as we never met before.
My name is Mr. Bright Maphosa, the director in charge of Chief Auditing and
Accounting Unit of Standard Bank South Africa I and my colleagues, hope
that you will not expose or betray this trust and confidant that I am about
to introduce to you for the mutual benefit of our both families. I am
writing in respect of Mr. Mathy Reinhold of a foreign customer of our Bank
who perished long with his next of kin with Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302,
flight number 801with the whole passengers on 10th of March 2019. Open and
view the website:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Airlines_Flight_302

Since the demise of this our customer, I personally has watched with Keen
interest to see the next of kin but all has proved abortive as no one has
come to claim his funds of $15.000.000,00 (Fifteen Million United States
Dollars), which has been with our branch for a very long time. On this
note, I decided to seek for whom his name shall be used as the Next of Kin
since nobody is coming for the fund again. In view of this I got your
contact through the Internet when I was doing research on a foreigner that
I will use in this great opportunity because I don’t want the money to be
recalled to our Bank treasury as unclaimed funds. I have also agreed to
offer you 40% of the total sum and the rest 60% will be for me.

The reason for a foreigner in the Business is for the fact that the
deceased man was a foreigner and it is not authorized by the law guiding
our Bank for a citizen of this country to make the claim of the fund. So
the Request of you as a foreigner is necessary to apply for the release and
transfer of the fund smoothly into your reliable Bank account as the
Surviving Relation to the deceased. If you are really sure of your
integrity, trustworthy and confidentiality, and accept not to cheat or
disappoint me after this business.

I will send you by fax or e-mail the next procedure to follow in order to
execute this transaction .I will not fail to bring to your notice that this
business is hitch free and doesn't have any negative impact. You should not
entertain any fear as all modalities for the smooth and easy transfer of
this fund have been finalized; this transaction will be completed within
7-bank working Days immediately we start the claim. Waiting for your urgent
response and please kindly delete if you are not interested. Email me with
this

Regards,
Mr. Bright Maphosa
Email: mr.brightmaphosa@gmail.com

Anti-fraud resources: