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: Mrs Caroline Freund <officemail01010@tim.it>
Reply-To: mrs.carolinefreund1@yahoo.com
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2017 19:20:05 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: Your Reply Is Urgently Needed




Good day dear!

I am sure this mail would be coming to you as a surprise since we have never met before and you would also be asking why I have decided to chose you amongst the numerous internet users in the world. I saw your profile on the Internet, which has made me accomplish my request.

I am Mrs. Caroline Freund, the bill and exchange manager of Cahoot Finance UK. In my department, I discovered an abandoned sum of USD 8,000,000.00. (Eight Million USD), on account of our foreign customers (MR Paul Louis Halley) who died along with his wife in 2003 in a plane crash. Please see website for more information.

http://newswww.bbc.net.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/oxfordshire/4537663.stm


According to our Banking Act of 1990, if the money is unclaimed after a period of thirteen (13) years, it will be a government property. Therefore, I have planned to upload your data in our banking system as a Next of Kin of the late Mr. Halley because I have tried my best to locate any of his family members but all such efforts were not successful.

I check this account for over 4-5 years and no one has ever come forward to claim the fund. But I've found that (Late Mr. Paul Louis Halley) has no next of kin or the account beneficiary before he died. So, after going through his file in our bank. I sincerely and consciously seek your consent to present you as the next of kin / Will Beneficiary to this account, so that the total value of USD 8,000,000.00 would be transferred to you for our mutual benefit. I'm going to share the money in the ratio 60% to me and 40% to you with you.

Your reply is urgently needed.

For more confidentiality, I want you to send your reply.

In your reply I'll give you more details then.

Waiting for your urgent response.

Sincerely yours.
Mrs. Caroline

Anti-fraud resources: