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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: Siew Ling <siew42562@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2023 12:08:44 -0700
Subject: Dear friend

Dear friend

I am Barr Siew Ling, Legal Consultant and Superior Court
Representative based in Bolton, MA, USA. I am writing to you regarding my
late client, who is a citizen of your country, he was killed in a car
accident with his wife and two children on the West Stockbridge Highway
here in the US.

My client, his wife and two children were killed in a car accident on
September 26, 2017, on the West Stockbridge Expressway here in the US and
since then I have made several inquiries to locate any of my client
extended family members but all efforts were in vain, so I decided to track
his last name through the Internet to locate any member of his Family.

I have contacted you to help me claim and transfer the money left behind by
my late Client before the bank seizes it or declares it unusable. The bank
has already issued me a notice to provide next of kin or seize the account
as an 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% goes for you.

All I need is your honest cooperation to enable us to carry out this
Agreement. I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate
agreement 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 anyone for security reasons and to avoid eyebrows. As soon as I hear
from you, I will give you more details on how this business deal can be
achieved successfully.

Sincerely,
Siew Ling

Anti-fraud resources: