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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: "malvin obeng" <vinobeng@jumpy.it> (may be fake)
Reply-To: obeng_malvin@yahoo.com
Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2005 19:15:36 +0100
Subject:

Hello Dear,
I MAKE THIS APPEAL WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT ANY FACTS OR OPINION
EXPRESSED BY ME ARE GIVING IN CONFIDENCE AND SOLELY FOR YOUR PERSONAL
INFORMATION AND USE.
I am Mr.Malvin Obeng,the manager of bill and exchange at the
foreign remittance department of my Bank. In my department I
discovered an
abandoned sum of US$9.6M,(Nine Million, Six Hundred Thousand US
Dollars)
with account number 45-6815-1764 that belongs to one of our foreign
customers who died along with his wife and only daughter in a plane
crash of
Alaska Airlines Flight number 261 which crashed on 31 January, 2000.
You
shall read more about the crash on visiting this site
<http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/> The owner of
this
account is Mr. Morris Thompson an American and great industrialist and
a
resident of Alaska.
It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this
business proposal to you and for our bank to release the money to you.
You
have to follow the instruction which I will send to you as the next of
kin
or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement
since
nobody is coming for it and I don't want this money to go into our bank
treasury as unclaimed bill.
The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that if such money
remained
unclaimed after Three years, the money will be transfered into the bank
treasury as unclaimed fund. The money has now stayed more than three
years
and I am preparing documentaion to prove that this money has been
transfered
to our bank treasury. It will be between me and you only that will know
that
the money is not transfered into our treasure. The request of foreigner
as
next of kin in this transaction is occasioned by the fact that the
customer
was a foreigner and a Senegalese cannot stand
as next of kin to a foreigner.
In appreciation of your assistance, I am offering you 30% of the total
sum.
5% for contingencies (cost of transfer/other charges) likely to be
incurred
during the course of transaction, while the remaining 65% is for me.
Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email the
text of
the application which you will complete and forward to our bank asking
for
this money to be paid to you as the next of kin to Mr. Morris Thomson.
I
will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is
hitch-free
and that you should not entertain any fear as all required arrangements
have
been made for the transfer.
You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive this mail
through the above email.

PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT ME IMMEDIATELY AT obeng_malvin@yahoo.com
SHOULD YOU CONSIDER MY URGENT REQUEST.

Yours Faithfully,
MR. Malvin Obeng.



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