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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: "William Andrews." <web.info5256@btinternet.com>
Reply-To: "William Andrews." <f1wil2@live.com>
Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2012 20:01:07 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: I anticipate your urgent response.




 
Good day,

I know that this message will come to you as a surprised, my name is Mr. William Andrews, i am 45years old, married with five kids and it may interest you to know that i am a man of Peace. I work with a bank here in my country Ghana as a Remittance Controller but early last years i was named an Outstanding Director by the Outstanding Directors Exchange, i am one of only six corporate directors to receive the honor from a pool of more than 50 peer-nominated candidates.

Well, i believe there is no higher praise than to be singled out by your boardroom peers for going above and beyond the call of duty. During our banking annual auditing; in my position, i discovered a dormant account containing the sum of Thirty Six Million United States dollars $36,000,000.00 and this account has been dormant for over Seven (7) good years without any beneficiary attached to it till date.

Definitely, this fund will be confiscated by our BANKING CODE OF ETHICS after Ninety Six Calendars Months if it remains dormant. I earnestly need your full cooperation in transferring this dormant fund out of our bank to avoid having the funds confiscated. I want to enlist your Name as the beneficiary of the said fund so that the fund can be transferred to any valid foreign account you may wish to nominate.

Upon a successful transfer without any disappointment from your side, i shall fly down to your country to meet you in person; thereafter we shall jointly invest the fund into magnitude investments. If you are willing to cooperate with me, give me a reply name and telephone number and remember that this transaction must be confidential.

Yours truly,

Mr. William Andrews.

Anti-fraud resources: