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.

 

 

Fraud email example:

From: gepet455@yahoo.com.au
Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 07:19:23 -0800
Subject: BUSINESS ASSISTANCE/INVESTMET

From: Mr. Peter George.

Foreign payment department (ADB)

South Africa.

Alt.E-mail:mrpeter_at_adb@yahoo.co.uk

ATTN: Sir/Madam

My Name is Mr. Peter George The manager of the foreign payment department in my bank African Development Bank PLC (ADB) here in the Republic of South Africa. During an audit in my department i discovered an abandoned sum of US$18.5M dollars (EIGHTEEN MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND US DOLLARS) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer (MR. ANDREAS SCHRANNER an International Trust Housing Co-ordinator) from Munich, Germany) who died along with his entire family in July 2000 in a plane crash.

Below is a website which i will apprecaite you go through to read the information.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm

Since then I have made several enquiries to locate any of the above-mentioned person extended relatives, this has also proved abortive.
Now the reason why am contacting you is base on trust to enable me present you as the business associate / next of kin so that this fund will be released to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody has come for claiming of the fund.
And note, I have already removed and kept those documents of the said fund, which belong to the deceased, MR.ANDREAS SCHRANNER in a safe and confident place. It will be very easy to convince the bank since I am working there and also having those necessary legalized documents that will backup the fund and which will present you the rightful next of kin to the deceased customer.
I don't want this money to go into the bank treasury as unclaimed bill.
The banking law and guidline here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed after Five years, the money will be transfered into the bank treasury as unclaimed fund. The request of foreigner as next of kin in this business is occassioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and an Indigen here cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner.
All I require is your honest co-operation to enable us seeing this deal through.I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law.

I agree that 30% of this money will be for you as a respect to the provision of a foriegn account, 5% will be set aside for expenses incurred during the business, another 5% to help the less previlage and to assist the charity organisations here in Africa and abroad while the rest 60% would be for me Thereafter, I will visit your country for disbursement according to the percentage indicated Therefore, to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you arranged, you must apply first to the bank as relation or next of kin of the deceased indicating your bank name, your bank account number,your private telephone and fax number for easy and effective communication and location where the money will be remitted.

Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email the text of the application. I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch-free and that you should not entertain any atom of fear, as all required arrangements have been made for the transfer. You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive this letter.
Trusting to hear from you immediately on this mailbox for more detailed discussion.(mrpeter_at_adb@yahoo.co.uk )

Yours truly,
Mr. Peter George.


Anti-fraud resources: