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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: Agnes Huber <agnes_huber@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: lisaabams@gmail.com
Date: 11 Apr 2012 01:56:49 +0200
Subject: Re: Carefully Read and Respond

Dear Prospective Partner, It is my sincere desire to relate to you this important proposition, having seen your profile, compelled me to confide in your good sense of understanding, believing that you will not let me down. I am an accountant with La-Caixa Banco in Spain and was a personal account supervisor to a national of your country, who owned a construction company here in Spain. My client, his wife, and their three children were involved in the ill fated Kenya Airways crash in the coasts of Abidjan on 30th Jan 2000 which all passengers on board died. Since the death of my client, I have made several contacts with your embassy to locate any of his extended relatives but have been unsuccessful. After several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to trace his last name over the internet, to see if I could locate any member of his family hence I come across your contact. My particular interest is this huge deposit with our bank here in which the deceased has an account valued at about 5.2 Million {Five Million Two Hundred Thousand Euros}. Being the personal a/c manager of the deceased's bank account, the bank has issued me a notice to provide the next of kin/beneficiary or else the money will be converted to the banks treasury account and this means forfeiting the money. Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for over the past Ten years now, I hereby seek your consent (with due respect and honour) to present you as the next of kin to the deceased since you have the same surname with him, so that the proceeds of this account can be paid to you and then it will be sheared as follows 50% for me, 40% for you and 10% for the reimbursement of any expenses that we might incurred during the transfer process. However, I will require your residential address and personal telephone number which will be used to prepare an account closure and transfer demand letter which will be sent to you after it is drafted for you to send to the bank management as the relative to the late beneficiary. I guarantee that this will be executed under all legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. If you have the interest of sharing this opportunity with me, do not hesitate to respond at your earliest convenient. Thanks in advance as I anticipate your maximum cooperation in this regards. Yours Sincerely, Agnes Huber.

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