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.Herman.Hansley" <Mr.Herman.Hansley@w.cn>
Reply-To: hermanhansley11@yahoo.com
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2011 00:02:44 +0600 (BDT)
Subject: Did You Receive my Previous Email Message?

Dear ,

Accept my apology in advance if you feel offended by this mail. I found
your profile in an address jornal and i decided to write you,My Name is
Herman G Joseph,a Banker by profession, I work with Bank here in Republic
of Benin,(BANK NAME WITHHELD FOR SECURITY REASON)

I have a business proposition which I will gladly want to partner together
with you, please read details as unveiled below. In January 2001,a Indian
Oil Consultant/Contractor (Steve B.Bailes) made a numbered-time (fixed
deposit) for twenty four calendar months valued at ($25.150 M) TWENTY FIVE
MILLION ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND UNITED STATED DOLLARS Upon
maturity, I sent a routine notification of Account status to his
forwarding address but got no reply up till date.

After two months, we sent a reminder of same letter, and finally we
discovered from his contact employers, (Halliburton Oil Services
Company)that Steve B.Bailes died in a Beirut-bound charter jet Plane Crash
on the December 26, 2003. Please view more details about the crash:
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/12/25/benin.crash/index.html?

This office has exhaustively made efforts to locate the next of
kin/beneficiary, or any relative of our deceased customer,all to no avail
and not successful.

I have contacted you to assist me in securing this money before they get
confiscated or declared unserviceable by this bank. The banking law and
guidelines here stipulates that if such an account remains dormant or
non-operational after a period of Eight (8) years,the money will be
transferred into banking treasury as unclaimed fund.

However, attempts have been made twice by the Government Agency concerned
to confiscate this account if not for my intervention as the head account
and audit dept. I have always told them that the next of kin has been in
touch with us. The request of a foreigner as next of kin in this business
is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner.

Your response will determine our subsequent correspondence.
On replying please provie the following for effective communication:

Full Name:
Secure E-mail:
Secure Cell Phone Number:
Secure Fax Number:

This transaction requires utmost trust and sincerity, get back to me so i
can give you more details so we can proceed.
Best regards,
Herman R .Hansley
EMAIL;hermanhansley11@yahoo.com



Anti-fraud resources: