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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.

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Fraud email example:

From: "Barrister Femi Falana" <barrister_femifalana9@yahoo.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: falanachambersandassoc@lawyer.com
Date: Sat, 23 Oct 2004 09:07:15 -0700
Subject:

Dear friend,
With warm heart I offer my friendship, and greetings, and I hope this mail meets you in good time. However strange or surprising this contact might seem to you, as we have not met personally or had any dealings in the past, I humbly ask that you take due consideration of its importance and immense benefit. I also sincerely seek your confidence, as I make this proposal to you as a person of integrity.
I am contacting you to assist in retrieving a certain sum of amount deposited in a security company by my late client who perished with his entire family in a ghastly motor accident a long time ago. This fund has to be claimed before it gets confiscated because the security company doesn't know that the content of the consignment is cash because on the day of deposit we declared it as family valuables and personal effects because we never want them to know the true content of the consignment.
The security company has issued me a notice to provide the next of kin or have the consignment confiscated within the next few weeks and this very money is too big for me to allow it to be confiscated by the authority. Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for over a year now I seek your consent, to present you as the next of kin of the deceased.
Upon this discovery, I now seek your permission to have you stand as a next of kin to the deceased, as I will carefully work out all documentations for the funds to be released in your favor as the beneficiary next of kin. It may interest you to know that we have secured from the probate an order of mandamus to locate any of deceased beneficiary. Please acknowledge receipt of this message in acceptance of our mutual business endeavor by furnishing me with your full names, address and direct contact numbers.
These requirements will enable me file letter of claim to the appropriate departments of the security company for necessary approvals in your favor before the transfer can be made.
I shall compensate you with 20% share of the total amount of the fund, while 75% goes to me, and the remaining 5% for expenses incurred during the transaction. I have all necessary legal documents that can be used to make this claim. All I require is your honest co-operation to enable us see this transaction through. I guarantee you that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. I am not imposing this transaction on you; it is a thing of self-willingness.
After going through the proposal and understanding it very well, get back to me immediately so that we can start as follows:
1) I will send to you the contact of the security company, the deposited code, for you to call for verification if such deposit really exists.
2) The claim will require both of our physical presentation at the security company.
Please contact me through this email address: (barrister_femifalana@yahoo.com), I will introduce myself fully pending your response.
Regards,
Barrister Femi Falana (LLM, ESQ)





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