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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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Fraud email example:

From: "dave" <dave1@handbag.com>
Reply-To: bdave_122@yahoo.com
Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2005 21:39:08 -0700
Subject: URGENT PLS

Dave Coleman
Natwest Bank London.

Attention Sir ,


I am a senior staff in Natwest Bank London. I am writing following an
oppurtunity in my office that will be of imense benefit to both of us.

In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of £10.5million British
Pounds Sterling (Ten million five hundred thousand British Pounds) in
an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers Late Mr. Morris

Thompson an American who unfortunately lost his life in the plane crash
of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 which crashed on January 31 2000, including
his wife and only daughter. You shall read more about the crash on visiting
this site which I got during my investigation;

http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/ and
http://www.nativefederation.org/history/people/mThompson.html


Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his
next of kin or relatves to come over and claim his money because we
cannot release it unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or
relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines.

Unfortunately I learnt that his supposed next of kin being his only
daughter died along with him in the plane crash leaving nobody with the
knowledge of this fund behind for the claim. It is therefore upon this
discovery that I and two other officials in this department now decided
to make business with you and release the money to you as the next of kin
or beneficiary of the funds for safety keeping and subsequent disbursement
since nobody is coming for it and we don't want this money to go back into
Government treasury as unclaimed bill.

The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that such money remained
after five years the money will be transferred into banking treasury as
unclaimed funds.

We agreed that 35% of this money will be for you as foreign partner,
while the balance will be for my colleagues and I. I will visit your
country for the disbursement according to the percentages indicated
above once this money gets int your account. Please be honest to me.

Note this transaction is confidential and risk free. As soon as you
receive this mail you should contact me through my e-mail address
Please note that all the necessary arrangement for the smooth release of
these funds to you has been finalised.

We will discuss much in details when I do receive your response.

Meanwhile i would need Your personal details such as:

1. Your full name and address.
2. Your age and occupation.
3. Your cell phone and direct fax numbers

Awaiting your urgent reply .

Best regards

Dave Coleman

___________________________________________________________

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