joewein.net   joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days
  jwSpamSpy

Home
About Us
Spam
419/Nigeria
Fraud
Contact

"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: "Mr. Mark R. Ostler" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <markostler236@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 15:14:52 +0800
Subject: YOUR CONCISE RESPONSE REQUIRED


Dear Friend,

I am Mark Robert Ostler, a citizen of United States of America. A solicitor and co-owner of Cohen & Ostler Chambers of 455 N Whisman Rd, Mountain View CA, 94043 USA. I am a present and active member of the State Bar of California. I have been the barrister to Mr. Steve Tew, a multi-national entrepreneur, investor, consultant, real estate management. Mr. Tew whom i will refer to as my client has worked in many finacial and operational capacities, one time president Park city group, ShapeRite Concept, Fields Cookies as well as Prince Waterhouse Cooper where he worked as a certified Public Accountant. He has a Bachelor degree from Weber State University in Ogden, Utah USA. My client (Mr. Tew) use to work with shell development company as the general accounting operational manager.

On 21st of April 2012, my client, his wife and their 2 children were involved in a car accident along sagbama express road. All occupant of the vehicle unfortunately lost their lives. Since the death of my client, i have made several attempt to keep up the deceased will and several occasions i have tried to retrieve all extended family but prove abortive, which means my client has no recorded family or known relations.

As the attorney to my client i have all his investment and accounting records. I have traveled out of the States severally to oversea his investment and to my knowledge my client has a huge deposits of ($8.2 Million) which he lodged in one of the local bank were he worked majorly from, as a consultant to the shell Oil and Gas before his passed on. I wish to offer you my partnership in this business transaction. Let me reassure you that the source of this money is very legitimate and it does not have anything to do with laundering or whatever.

For this transaction to commence, I will need you to tell me about yourself and provide me with your details so I can be sure of who I am about to engage in business and if you have the capacity to handle huge sums of this nature. I would respectfully request that you keep the contents of this mail confidential and respect the integrity of the information you come by as a result of this mail. I contacted you independently on this investigation and no one is informed of this communication. The finance institute where my client has an account has issued me a notice to provide the N.O.K or have the account confiscated within the next Fourteen official working days.


In regards to this, i wish to present you as the N.O.K to the bank for the claim of the total sum and its interest. All i require of you is your honest cooperation, understanding, ability and commitment in getting this done and when the valued money is been paid to you we could share it 50% for me, 40% for you and other 10% for miscellaneous expenses.

I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. Please get in touch with me by my email and send to me your Name, telephone numbers and address to enable us discuss further about this transaction. As soon as i confirm the receipt of this message and your willingness to part-take, you further receive more information and arrangement towards this and i will keep you updated while i travel down to sort this out. I hope to read from you as soon as possible.

Best Regards
Mr. Mark R. Ostler

Anti-fraud resources: