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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: hunter paul <paulhunter60europe@yahoo.com.au>
Date: Thu, 21 Jul 2005 08:55:07 +1000 (EST)
Subject: DESIRED TRUST.


Dear Friend,
Compliment of the day, Greetings to you from london (United
Kingdom),I humbly seak your help very urgently and I hope and
believe u wouln't fail me, Both now and in future to come. I also
wish to inform you that this mail is not a hoax mail and I urge you
to treat it very serious. We want to transfer to any overseas
account the sum of (£30,000.000.00) Thirty million
British Pounds from a prime Bank here in London. I want to please
ask you, If you are not capable of doing this, please quietly look for
a reliable and
honest person whom we can trust and 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
fund, even an empty a/c can serve, as long as you will remain
honest to me till the end of this important business once again am
trusting in you and believing
in God that you will never let me down either now or in future.
Am Mr.Paul Hunter, presently promoted to Auditor General in one
of the banks here in London. During the bank course of 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
get confisicated or declared unserviceable. The owner of this
account is Mr. "Keith Lathan" an American and a great industrialist
also a resident of Alaska State,
who unfortunately lost his life in a 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. 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 account.

The total amount involved is Thirty million British Pounds only
(£30,000.000.00) and we wish to transfer this fund 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 this 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 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 fund to
your account immediately with appropriate clearance from the
relevant ministries and foreign exchange departments.
At the conclusion of this business, Your help will immensively be
rewarded with 30% of the total sum.
While 70% will be for us. PLEASE, TREAT THIS PROPOSAL AS
TOP SECRET.
I look forward to your earliest reply
Best Regards,

Hunter.







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