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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: Barr. Desi Prawiti <desi.p@lawyer.com>
Date: Sun, 25 Aug 2013 17:38:22 -0400
Subject: You Can Be His Next Of Kin.

Dear Good friend,

My name is Barrister Ms. Desi Prawiti (Esq.), A solicitor and an Advocate
of the supreme court of Malaysia; I worked as a personal Attorney to late
Mr.Muhamad Ariff Ismail, an expatriate, who was a consultant with
PETROLIAM NASIONAL BERHAD (PETRONAS) Malaysia. He died on April 21st,
2009. Since then I have made several inquiries as to locate any of his
extended relatives, but all proved abortive.

After several unsuccessful attempts, hence I decided to contact you. I am
contacting you to assist in retrieving the money valued at (US$15.5M) that
was left behind by my client (Mr. Muhamad Ariff Ismail) with the CIMB BANK
BERHAD, Malaysia before it declared unserviceable account and be
confiscated by the bank. Consequently, the bank issued a notice to provide
any member of late Muhamad Ariff Ismail family or relatives within 10 days
or the account will be closed.

I hereby seek your consent to act as relative to late Muhamad Ariff Ismail
and claim the money US$15.5M from the bank. I will provide the necessary
information to be used in convincing the bank that you relate to
late Muhamad Ariff Ismail. Whoever I present to the bank will claim the
money, since I am his personal Counsel before he dies; the bank knows me,
because I represent him in all his banking dealings with the bank.

When you claim the money, we share it 50% / 50%. All I require is your
honest cooperation to enable us succeed without any hitch. I guarantee
that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will
protect us from any breach of the law.

I wait for your urgent reply, l am writing you from my office email
address, but your are to contact me through my private email
barrdesi.pratiwi@yahoo.com.my

Sincerely,
Barrister Ms. Desi Prawiti (Esq.)



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