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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: "Mekus Lee" <mekuslee@mekuslee.com>
Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 16:19:13 +0000
Subject: Urgent Partnership.

Urgent Partnership.
Firstly, not to cause you embarrassment, I am Barrister MR. Mekus Lee, a
Solicitor at law and the personal attorney to named GERALD WELSH who died in
an air crash along with his wife (CARYL WELSH) on the 31st October 1999 in
an Egyptian airline Boeing 990 with other passengers on board. You can
confirm this fact from the website which was aired by the BBC WORLD NEWS:
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/502503.stm> Since his death, none
of his relations or persons have come forward to lay claims to his funds as
next-of-kin, and on my own I have made concerted effort to locate any of his
relatives but all prove abortive, which makes me to believe that maybe
nobody of his knows that he was operating this foreign account with
Security firm in Europe. Based on the ethics and policies of the Deposit
holding firm, this fund will be declared unclaimed funds and taken to the
treasury of the bank as capital base of the bank, because already the
account has been tagged dormant because it has exceeded the normal
functional number of years. In spite of the above please do bear in mind
that l have made several enquiries with his country's embassies to locate
any of my clients extended relatives, this has also proved unsuccessful.
After these several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to contact you with
this business partnership proposal. I have contacted you to assist in
repatriating a huge amount of money left behind by my client before they get
confiscated or declared unserviceable by the Bank where this huge deposit
was lodged. The deceased had a deposit valued presently at $13million
(Thirteen Million United State Dollars) and the Company has issued me a
notice to provide his next of kin or Beneficiary by will otherwise have the
account confiscated within the next sixty official working days. Since I
have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for over 3years now, I seek
your consent to present you as the next of kin / Will Beneficiary to the
deceased so that the proceeds of this account valued at $13 Million US
dollars can be paid to you. This will be disbursed or shared in these
percentages, $10m to me and $3m to you. I have all necessary legal documents
that can be used to back up any claim we may make. All I require is your
honest Co-operation, Confidentiality and Trust to enable us sees this
transaction through. I guarantee you that this will be executed under a
legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. And
please provide me the following: This is to enable me commence immediate
preparation of all legal documents that will back up our claim. 1. Full
Name: 2. Your Telephone Number and Fax Number 3. Your Contact Address. Your
urgent response will be highly anticipated and appreciated.
Best regards,
Mr Mekus Lee


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