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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: "Ben Adams" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <ben.adams22@uku.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:48:29 +0430
Subject: Attn''

My Dear,

I wish to inform you that this letter is not a hoax mail and I urge you to treat it serious because I believe it is
only a day that people meet and become great friends and business partners. My name is Ben Adams the
present branch Manager of a bank here in Benin . I write you this proposal in good faith, believing that I
can trust you with the information I am about to reveal to you. Like I said, I have a transaction that will
benefit both of us, as your assistance is required as a foreigner. As I resumed duty, I discovered an
account with total sum of $4.700.000 (Four Million Seven Hundred Thousand United States Dollars)
that has not been operated for the past years. From my investigation, I found out that this account belongs
to one late Dr. Jack Hartman a great industrialist and a resident of Guinean Conakry, who unfortunately lost
his life along with his entire families.

The account is escrow call account, a secret type of account in my bank and no other person knows about
this account or any thing concerning it, the account has no other beneficiary. I have kept a close
monitoring of the account since then and nobody has come forward to ask about the money as next of kin
to the late Jack Hartman meaning that no one is aware of the account. I cannot directly take out this
money without the help of a foreigner and that is why I am contacting you for an assistance to claim the
funds and share it with me. As the Manager of my bank branch, I have the power to influence the release
of the funds to any foreigner that comes up as the next of kin to the account, with the correct information
concerning the account, which I shall give you.

I am seeking your co-operation to present you as the next of kin to the account, so that my bank head

quarters will release the funds to you. There is practically no risk involved, the transaction will be executed
under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of law. If you accept to work with me,
I want you to state how you wish us to share the funds in percentage, so that both parties will be satisfied.
Contact me as soon as you receive this message if you feel we can work together, so we can go over the
details.

thanking you in advance and please treat with utmost confidentiality. I wait your urgent response.

Yours Sincerely,

Ben Adams

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