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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: <leomathew@entryweb.it>
Reply-To: leomathew11@yahoo.com
Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2005 17:04:40 +0200
Subject: FROM MR. LEO

MR. LEO MATHEW
JOHANNESBURG
SOUTH AFRICA


Dear sir,

Courtesy of business opportunity, I take liberty anchored on strong
desire to solicit for your assistance on this mutual beneficiary and
risk free transaction with you, which I hope you give urgent attention.
To be precise,

I am Mr. Leo Mathew Senior manager of ABSA BANK Limited JOHANNESBURG
SOUTH AFRICA. In my department, we discovered an abandoned sum of US$
35.5 Million(THIRTY five Million Five Hundred Thousand United States
Dollars) in an account that belongs to one of our customers who died
along with his entire family in 1988 Lockerbie Pan American Airline
plane crash. Since we got information about his death, we have been
expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we
cannot release it unless somebody applied for it as next of kin or
relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking procedures, but
unfortunately to no avail andnobody has come forward to claim the
money.

Therefore, upon this discovery that I and other two officials in my
department now decide to establish a cordial business relationship with
you,hence my contacting you.We want you to purportedly present your
good self as the next of kin or relation of the deceased so that we can
release the fund (money) into your account for safety and subsequent
disbursement since nobody is coming for it and again we do not want the
money to go into the government account as unclaimed bill .The banking
law and procedures herein stipulates that any accounts abandoned or
dormant for a period of some years is subject to be closed and all
money contained therein will be forfeited to the government treasury
account. Now it is being speculated that the above sum will be
transferred into government treasury account as unclaimed fund on or
before July 2005. The reason for you to present your good self as the
next of kin is occasioned by the fact that the deceased customer was a
foreigner.

Mode of Sharing After the successful completion of the transfer is as
follows, for the role you will be expected to play in the whole
exercise, we have agreed to give you Thirty (30%) of the total sum,and
10% has been set aside for the expenses we are going to encounter by
both parties in the process of this transaction and the remaining 60%
shall be for my colleagues and I in support of the aforementioned, you
are urged to reply this letter indicating your readiness and interest
to participate in the business.

After your reply, you will be advised on the next step afterwards. I
quite believe that you will protect our interest by keeping this
business top secret and confidential. Your interest will be equally
protected, as we must maintain maximum confidentiality. Trust to hear
from you on this TEL NO. or return mail

Count on your earliest reply.

Thanks

Yours faithfully
Mr. Leo



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