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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: ccolepeter@jmail.co.za
Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2008 17:53:42 +0000
Subject: MESSAGE FROM MR COLE

Greetings From Cole Peterson.

I write to seek your consent in a private and confidential matter regarding
some funds unaccounted for in my bank here in London during the last 2005
business year. I need assistance from a trustworthy and reliable person whom
I
will fill in as the beneficiary. Your major role would be to provide either
an
existing bank account or to set up a new Bank account immediately to receive
this money and get 20% of the total funds as commission. There are
practically
no risks involved, the transaction will be executed under a legitimate
arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law, it will be
simply
a bank-to-bank transfer, and all I need from you is to stand claim as the
original depositor of these funds who made the deposit with my branch so
that my
head office can order the transfer to your designated bank account under few
working days
.
I am Mr. Cole Peterson, the regional manager and I write you this proposal
in
good faith; I am married with two lovely kids. It is my duty as the regional
manager to send in financial report to my head office in the capital city
London
at the end of each business year. On the course of the last year 2005
business
report, I discovered that my branch in which I am the manager made eight
million
eight hundred and fifty thousand united state dollars ($8,850,000.00) which
my
head office is not aware of and will never be aware of. I have placed this
funds
on what we call escrow call account with no beneficiary and as an officer of
this bank I cannot be directly connected to this money, hence i contacted
you.

If you accept to work with me I will appreciate it very much as you are the
first and the only person I am contacting for this transaction. At this
juncture, I wish to tell you what prompted me to package this deal. I have a
9-year old daughter who has leukemia, a disease of the blood, and she needs
a
bone marrow transplant or she will die. I want this transplanting to be done
in
any good children hospital in your country if there is one. Once this fund
is
transferred into your account, I shall resign from my job and bring my
family to
start a new life in your country. I would be grateful if you would help me
invest my own part of the money in a very profitable business. I have worked
for
this bank for the past 15 years yet I have nothing to show for it, I really
need
your assistance to secure this fund as soon as possible.

I suggest you give me your private tel:no and fax: no for easy communication
stating your abilities in this deal. As soon as you receive this message if
you
think we can work together so that we can go over the details.

Please reply to this my private e-mail contact for security reason
ccolepeter@jmail.co.za
Truly yours,

Mr. Cole Peterson



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