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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: Kestell Laurie <klaurie@fnb.co.za>
Date: Thu, 26 May 2005 19:55:14 +0100
Subject: From K.Laurie


For your attention:

My name is Mr. Kestel Laurie, I am a financial inspector in First National Bank of South Africa. I am contacting you of a business transfer, of a huge sum of money from a deceased’s account. Though I know that a transaction of this scale will make any one apprehensive and worried, I am guarantying you that everything has been diligently taken care off.
I decided to contact you due to the urgency of this transaction. To ease your hesitation, I acquired your contact from the British chambers of commerce and industry, foreign trade division. An account was opened by a foreigner named Douglas Banks who died in an air crash along with his wife on the 31st October 1999 in an Egyptian airline 990 with other passengers on board.


Prior to the death of this gentleman, I worked in the personal banking service in our bank, and Mr Banks was one of my clients. He had made money from the illegal diamond trade in Angola. Due to the UN’s involvement in tracking down illegal miners of diamonds, He and his wife, Estelle were the only ones who knew about the existence of these funds, as they wanted to keep the volume of their wealth secret. We cannot release the funds from his account unless someone applies for claim as the next-of-kin to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines. That of course would not happen as there is no one listed as the next of kin in the documents. His only child, a daughter is married and lives in Sydney with her husband. Douglas and his wife officially lived in Zurich, but Douglas spent most of his time here in Africa before his death.

With these details, I now seek your permission to have you stand as a next of kin to the deceased. Most of the documentation for the funds has been carefully worked out by a lawyer. The total amount of funds stands at $27,623,000.00, and would be paid into a domiciliary account to be released in your favour as the beneficiary's next of kin.

In South Africa, after a time period of six years, funds such as these are usually recalled back by the bank treasury as unclaimed bills. It is on this note I decided to seek for whom his name shall be used as the next of kin/beneficiary to this funds.

It is also worth pointing out to you that we have secured from the probate, a writ of mandamus to trace any of the deceased beneficiaries. Please acknowledge receipt of this message in acceptance of our mutual business undertaking by providing me with the following information if you are interested.

A.A Beneficiary name;. In order for me to prepare the documents for transfer of the funds in your name, It would also be imperative that you would be able to travel to South Africa to open a non-resident account for onward transfer to your overseas account, and for us to see face to face.

B.Direct Telephone and fax numbers; both for our personal contact, and for the confidentiality of this transaction.

I have decided to recompense you with 30% of the total sum on final conclusion of this venture for your aid. 5% of the funds will go to the lawyer who has helped with some of the documentation so far, and who will help us complete this deal. I plan to use the balance 65% for investment purposes in your country as it would not be wise to invest such a huge amount of money right away in my country without raising eyebrows. I do hope you have suggestions on which ventures I can invest in.

If you choose to accept the terms of this offer, please try to contact me instantaneously. I hope you do not take undue advantage of the trust I have bestowed in you by revealing the status of this funds as I will advise you to kindly cease from responding at all if you do not intend to render any assistance.

You can contact me via my private e-mail address which is keslaurie@netscape.net.

Best regards,

Mr. Kestel Laurie

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