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: "Mr. John Sono" <consultant@123.com.sv>
Reply-To: johnsonoza2006@msn.com
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:42:36 +0100
Subject: From Mr. John Sono



From Mr. John Sono
Rissik Street Johannesburg,
South Africa.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Best of the season!

Please do accept my sincere apologies if my mail does not meet your personal
ethics although, I wish to use this medium to get in touch with you first
because it's the fastest means. Be so kind to contact me at your earliest
convenient for a possible business transaction involving money transfer of
about $14.2 Million USD.

Let me start by introducing myself. My names are Mr. John Sono. I am a
consulting auditor attached with the private Banking Services of a well-known
bank here in the Republic of South Africa. In one of our periodic auditing I
discovered a dormant accounts with holding balance of $14.2 Million (Fourteen
Million Two Hundred Thousand United State Dollars), which has not been
operated
for the past seven years. From my investigations and confirmations, the owner
of this account is a foreigner. An American accounting consultant and a Broker
by name Mr. Robert J. Gerlich 56 who was among the dead victims of the 11th
September 2001,World Trade Center attack and since then nobody has done
anything as regards the claiming of this money because he has no
family members
who are aware of the existence of neither the account nor the funds.

In his bio-data form, he listed no next of kin or relation. In the field of
private banking, opening an account in this way means no one will know of its
existence. Such accounts are rarely held under a name or depositors
use numbers
and codes to make the accounts anonymous. I am contacting you independently of
this audit investigation and no one is informed of this communication and I
decided to intimate you with certain facts that I believe would be of interest
to you.

I have secretly discussed this matter with a top senior minister official of
the federal ministry of finance here and we have agreed to find a reliable
foreign partner to deal with us although due to his position he did
not want to
take active part but as soon as you follow my instructions everything will be
successfully because we will be working hand in hand with him. We thus propose
to do business with you, standing in as the next of kin of these funds
from the
deceased and after due legal processes have been followed the fund will be
released to your account without delay and we will use it for
investment and to
assist the less privileged in the society because if we left the fund with the
government it will be fortified for nothing and will be used to suppress the
poor masses in the society.

This transaction is totally free of risk and troubles as the fund is
legitimate
and does not originate from drug, money laundry, terrorism or any
other illegal
act. Finally, I am prepared to share the money with you and we share the
proceeds 60% for me and 40% for you. We can fine-tune this based on our
interactions and with my position/affiliate in the bank we can get things done
in a smooth way. There is a reward for this project and it is a task
well worth
undertaking. This business will be completed within 7 Banking days from the
date of the receipt of your response.

What I need from you now to get this business started is the detailed account
information where you want the money to be transferred so that I will
apply for
the Release of the fund according to the Inheritance procedure. Even an empty
account is ok.

They are as follows:

(1) Your Full Name and Country Name.
(2) Your Private Phone/Fax Numbers.
(3) Your Bank Name and Address.
(4) Your Account Number:
(5) IBAN Number And Swift Code:
(6) Account Name.

I thank you for spearing moments of your very busy schedules to read my
proposal. If you are interested send your response to my email address.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Warmest regards,

Mr. John Sono.

Anti-fraud resources: