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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: "Douglas Graham" <douglas_auditorgeneral@msn.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2006 13:39:41 +0000
Subject: DEAR FRIEND

From The Desk of:
Mr. Douglas Graham,
Auditor General, Natwest Bank Group,
Caryle House, Carlyle Rd, Cambridge,CB4 3DH,
United Kingdom.
Dear Friend,
 
              REQUEST FOR YOUR PROMPT ATTENTION
 
I am Mr.Douglas Graham , Auditor General of Natwest Bank Group, UK. I am writing following an opportunity in my office that will be of immense benefit to both of us. In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of £16.400.000.00 (Sixteen Million, Four Hundred thousand British Pounds Sterling) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers, Late Mr. Robert Thorgrimson 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. You shall read more about the crash on visiting this site. http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/
 
Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin or relatives to come over and lay claims to 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 funds 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 your possesion as the next of kin or beneficiary of the funds for safety keeping and subsequent disbursement, since nobody is laying claims to 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 seven(7) years will be transferred into banking treasury as unclaimed funds. We agreed that 35% of this money would be for you as gratification for assistance rendered, while the balance will be for my colleagues and me. I will visit your country for the disbursement according to the percentages indicated above once this money gets into your account. Please be honest to me as trust stands to be our watchword in this transaction. Our assurance is that your role is risk free to accord this transaction the legality it deserves as with all modalities put in place we are certain in actualizing a hitch free transfer of the funds without any complications. Kindly signify your intention to assist by sending me an email for further procedures relating to this transaction. you can contact me through this email address: do_graham@yahoo.co.uk 
 
Please note that all necessary arrangement for the smooth release of these funds to you has been finalized. We will discuss much in details when I do receive your response. If you are interested in this project contact me as a matter of urgency for further directives.
 
Best regards,
Mr.Douglas Graham.

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