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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: "MR JERRY," <jerry234@luxmail.com> (may be fake)
Date: Sun, 5 Jun 2005 11:25:13 +0400
Subject: URGENT,

Greetings,
Before I introduce myself, I want you to patiently
read this offer as it comes with the best of
intentions as I wish to inform you that this letter is
not a hoax mail and I urge you to treat it seriously.
I write you this letter in good faith as we want to
transfer to an overseas account US$21,850.000.00
(Twenty One Million Eight Hundred Fifty Thousand
United States Dollars) from a prime Bank here in
Dubai-United Arab Emirates.
I want to ask you, If you are not capable to quietly
look for a reliable and honest person who will be
capable and fit to provide either an existing bank
account or to set up a new Bank a/c immediately to
receive this money, even an empty a/c can serve to
receive this money, as long as you will remain honest
to me till the end for this important business
trusting in you and believing in God that you will
never let me down either now or in future.
I am MR CHIDE, recently promoted to
Auditor General in one of the Apex banks here in
Dubai. During the course of our auditing last week, I
discovered a floating fund in an account opened in the
bank in 1996 and since 1998 nobody has operated on
this account again, after going through some old files
in the records I discovered that the owner of the
account died without a [Heir/WILL] hence the money is
floating and if I do not remit this money out urgently
it will be forfeited for nothing. The owner of this
account is Mr. Morris Thompson an American and a great
industrialist and a resident of Alaska State, who
unfortunately lost his life in the plane, crash of
Alaska Airlines Flight 261 which crashed on January 31
2000, including his wife and only daughter leaving
nobody to claim the money. You can read more news
about the crash on visiting this site;
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/index.html.No
other person knows about this account or any thing
concerning it, the account has no other beneficiary
and my investigation proved to me as well that the
account is a secret investment account.
The total amount involved is US$21,850.000.00 (Twenty
One Million Eight Hundred Fifty Thousand United States
Dollars) and we wish to transfer this money into a
safe foreigners account abroad. But I don't know any
foreigner; I am only contacting you as a foreigner
because this money cannot be approved to a local
person here, but to a foreigner who has information
about the account, which I shall give to you upon your
positive response. I am revealing this to you with
believe in God that you will never let me down in this
business, you are the first and the only person that I
am contacting for this business, so please reply
urgently so that I will inform you on the next step to
take urgently. I need your strong assurance that you
will never let us down, me and a key bank official who
is deeply involved with me in this business.
I guarantee you that this transaction will be executed
under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you
from any breach of the law. The bank official will
destroy all documents of the transaction immediately
you receive this money leaving no trace to any place.
I will use my position and influence to obtain all
legal approvals for onward transfer of this money to
your account with appropriate clearance from the
relevant ministries and foreign exchange departments.
At the conclusion of this business, I will give you
20% of the fund for this assistance. I am aware of the
international monitoring of all large-scale financial
movements after the September 11th 2001 terrorist
attack on America and to avoid any state of financial
Investigation, I will provide a classified clearance
paper from the relevant bodies that will exonerate the
money from drug, money laundered or terrorist related
proceeds. Kindly respond to my proposal through this
my private emal;prince_markdxb@yahoo.com.indicating interest and
if it is not your wish kindly forget I contacted you.
PLEASE, TREAT THIS PROPOSAL AS TOP SECRET AND
CONFIDENTIAL.
I look forward to your earliest reply
Best Regards,
MR,CHIDE



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