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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: godlovesme@freemail.gr (Ruben James)
Reply-To: godlovesme@freemail.gr
Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2013 17:33:51 +0300
Subject: GET BACK TO ME ASAP


Attention;

Do accept my sincere apologies if my mail does not meet your personal ethics, but let it remains as top secret between you and I. Due to the alarming rate of internet scam letters all over the globe I guess it would be a bit difficult for you to believe my story but all depends on your personal instinct towards my proposal,

I am Barr. Ruben James an investment attorney here in the UK. Sir I would like to seek for your assistance towards relocating of some fund belonging to a deceased client of mine who shares the same last name with you because the custodian financial institution is at the verge of confiscating his deposit worth £25,850,000.00 (Twenty Five Million Eight Hundred And Fifty Thousand British Pounds Sterling.

In view of the above, I contacted you because you share the same last name with my client who died in a ghastly auto accident here in the UK 5 years ago. I have been instructed for the last time by the custodian financial institution as his attorney to present an heir to my clients

deposit before the end of next 21 working days or else the fund will be confiscated and be reverted to HM TREASURY as unclaimed fund. I have been retained to administer the deposit and would like to discuss certain privileged information with you accordingly because I have identified and located you as a suitable heir apparent to the deposit since you share the same last name of the deceased so that the fund can be processed in your name as the next of kin to my late client.

I would respectfully request that you treat the content of this letter as privileged and respect the integrity of the information you come by as a result of this correspondence.In compliance with standard requirements of the British Government disclosure and privacy laws which prohibit me from revealing certain privileged information without due process, I intentionally left out
certain information which I deemed proprietary at this point and to enable me have your consent first before I can reveal further information and details of this project to you.

I request that you send me your direct phone number so that we can discuss further verbally regarding the details of this project and how best we can conclude it. Please disregard my proposal if you do not find it interested.Note that I shall provide you with all the privileged information/legal documents relating to the deceased deposit and also will give you guidelines on how I intend to realize this goal without the breach of any financial laws.

I look forward to your soonest reply so as to give you further guidelines/details.Kindly get back to me via my private email: rubenjames511@hotmail.co.uk Waiting for your reply,

Yours Sincerely,
Barr. Ruben James

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