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: "Christain Bell" <christainbell07@btconnect.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 08:52:26 +0100
Subject: Good day Dear Nico !!

From The Desk Of DR Christain Bell
Senior Staff In File Department,
African Express Bank A.E.B
This is my private e mail mr.christainbell@hotmail.com
Private Number......+234 8065182999.
PLANE CRASH WEB SITE http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/12/26/benin.crash/index.html



Compliment Of The Season,

Good day Dear Nico,

I am (DR Christain Bell)a senior staff in file department in African development bank (ADB).I got your contact from a Yahoo Google Search.

When i was searching for a foreign partner i assured of your capability and reliability to champion this business opportunity when i prayed to God about you.

In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of $ 15 million U.S.A dollars (fifteen million U.S.A dollars). In an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer MR ANDREAS SCHRANNER AND HIS WIFE MARIA,THEIR DAUGHTER ANDREA ERICH, HER HUSBAN CHISTIAN,AND THEIR CHILDREN KATHARINA, AND MAXIMILIAN,ALL PERISHED IN THE JET on (Friday December 26,2003 ) in a plane crash.

Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin 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, but unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next of kin or relation died alongside with him at the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim. It is therefore upon this discovery that I and one official in my department now decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and we don't want this money to go into the bank treasury as unclaimed bill.

The Banking law and guideline here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed after five years, the money will be transferred into the Bank treasury as unclaimed fund. The request of foreigner as next of kin in this business is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner, and a Burkina be cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner. We agree that 35% of this money will be for you as foreign partner, in respect to the provision of a foreign account, 10 % will be set aside for expenses incurred during the business and 55 % would be for me, Therefore after I and my family will visit you in your country for disbursement according to the percentages indicated.

Therefore to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you as arranged, you must apply first to the bank as relation and next of kin of the deceased .Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by email the text of the application I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch free and that you should not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made for the transfer.

Your Full Name...........................? Your Sex.................................? Your Age.................................? Your Country..............................? Marital Status......................? Your Occupation..........................? Your Personal Mobile N...................? Your Personal Fax (if any)......................? You should contact me on my phone number + 234 8065182999 immediately as soon as you receive this letter. And reply me with this e mail address mr.christainbell@hotmail.com immediately with those information's i need from you, for me to process the text of application for you to apply to the bank.

Yours Faithfully,
Christain Bell

POST SCRITUM: You have to keep everything secret as to enable the transfer to move very smoothly in to the account you will prove to the bank. As you finished reading this letter call me immediately so that we discuss very well over this business. Please call me and inform me that you received my mail, because i don't go to net always.


Anti-fraud resources: