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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "sharon clara" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mssharon@mail.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 2013 19:24:36 -0700
Subject: From: Mrs. Sharon Clara

From: Mrs. Sharon Clara
s.clara@mail.com
Tel: +34-602-309-543

I am Mrs. Sharon Clara from Spain married to Mr. Peter Packer from South
Africa for eleven years now, we have three kids, and I am the manager of
bills and exchange at the foreign remittance department of Caixa Catalunya
Bank here in Barcelona, Spain. I have a business proposal which I believe
that will be a very Good opportunity for both of us so I decided to contact
you on this business opportunity in our bank, the business is this, I
discovered an abandoned sum of 10.500m US dollars (Ten million five hundred
thousand united states dollars) in our safety deposit vault that belongs
to one of our foreign customer. Who died along with his entire family on
15th April 2006 in a ghastly motor accident along Valencia express way.
since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next
of kin to come over and claim his money because the management can not
release it unless somebody applies for it as next of kin to the deceased
as indicated in our banking guidelines but unfortunately I learnt that all
his family died alongside with him at the motor accident leaving nobody
behind for the claim.

Since you have the same surname with this deceased customer you can easily
make this deal with me without any problem, I will give you all the secret
information’s of this deposit which will help you to claim this money as the
true next of kin. It is therefore upon this discovery that I decided to make
this business proposal to you so that the bank will release this money to
you as the next of kin to the deceased since nobody is coming for it and I
don’t want this money to go into the banks treasury as unclaimed funds or
declared to the government of Spain, once this is done the government of
Spain will confiscate the funds, which is not good for both of us instead
its better for us to do the deal and map out something for charity from the
money and share the rest .I agreed that 40 % of this total money will be for
you as a foreign partner, in respect to your acceptance to do this business
with me, while 60 % would be for me and my family. Therefore to enable the
immediate transfer of this fund to your account as arranged, you must apply
first to the bank as the next of kin of the deceased indicating your interest
of claim of your inherited funds, upon receipt of your reply through my above
Email, I will send to you by fax the text of the application which you will
send to the bank. I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction
is a hitch free that you should not entertain any atom of fear at all required
arrangements have been made perfectly.

Please take note my Husband is the only one that I have discussed this business
with and we both agreed to do this business with you, he answers my phone
anytime I am at work or not around my phone, for the security of this business,
because of my position in the bank my phone might be monitored. So I think that
it’s better to be discussing with my husband on the phone while l should be
arranging everything in the bank for smooth transaction. Please send to me via
my above direct email (s.clara@mail.com)immediately, your telephone numbers, and
your cell phone number your house telephone number, your private fax number, for
easy communication; I will call you as soon as I receive your mail with your full
information.

At this moment you should feel free to contact me through (s.clara@mail.com) as
soon as you receive this letter. You should understand that this should be kept
very confidential, let it be between you, me and my husband only. This is the only
way we can achieve success. I will level the whole arrangement here in the bank
for the transfer to be approved immediately. Please take note my husband is the
only one that I have discussed this business with and we both agreed to do this
business with you.

Best Regards,
Mrs. Sharon Clara

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