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: "marcus_george15" <marcus_george15@terra.com.mx>
Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2006 18:03:18 -0600
Subject: BENEFICIARY OF US$7.5M



Dr. MARCUS GEORGE
Valiant Private Bank AG
Postfach 3001
Bern,
Swizerland.
Cooporate Tel: + 41 445804933.
Cooporate Fax: + 41 445804934.
Confidential Tel: + 871- 763593838
Confidential Fax: + 871- 763593836
Email;;marcusgeorge12@myway.com

PRIVATE AND URGENT
I am contacting you on business transfer of a huge sum of money from a deceased account. Though I know that a transaction of this magnitude will make any one apprehensive and worried, but I am assuring you that all will be well at the end of the day.I decided to contact you due to the urgency of this transaction.

PROPOSITION.
We discovered an abandoned sum of (Seven Million Five Hundred Thousand United State Dollars) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers who died along with his entire family. Since his death, none of his next-of-kin or relations has come forward to lay claims for this money as the heir.We cannot release the fund from his account unless someone applies for claim as the next-of kin to the deceased as indicated in our anking guidelines. Upon this discovery, we now seek your permission to have you stand as a next of kin to the deceased as all documentations will be carefully worked out by us for the funds (Seven Million Five Hundred Thousand United State Dollars) to be released in your favor as the beneficiaries next of kin.It may interest you to know that we have secured from the probate
an order of madamus to locate any of deceased beneficiaries.

Please acknowledge receipt of this message in acceptance of our mutual business endeavor by furnishing me with the following:
1.Beneficiary Name and Address
2.Direct Telephone and Fax numbers.

These requirements will enable us fill letter of claim to the appropriate departments for necessary approvals in your favor before the transfer can be made. We shall be compensating you with a million dollars on final conclusion of this projects, while the rest shall be for us for investment purposes, if this proposal is acceptable to you,do not take undue Advantage of the trust we have bestowed in you.

Kindly notify me by telephone on my Confidential Tel: + 871- 763593838
Confidential Fax: + 871- 763593836

I await your urgent response,

Regards,

Dr.MARCUS GEORGE

NOTE BELOW:
Please reply to : marcusgeorge12@myway.com,, for confidentiality
reasons.

Anti-fraud resources: