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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

Fraud email example:

From: "luic luiceng" <luicheng@luicheng.org>
Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2005 09:15:29 +0000
Subject: PEACE AND GOODWILL.

From The Desk Of Mr.LUI CHENG.
The Manager, Deposit/Exchange
Foreign Remittance & finance Department.
standard chartered bank.
HONG KONG

Dear Sir/Madam,
I am really sorry if this mail gets to you without any notice. this is
by virtue of it's nature as being absolutely CONFIDENTIAL and TOP SECRET, I
want your advice on what investment opportunities you can assist me on. It
has become really difficult to get a reliable investor to assist in
business matters, because of the huge rate of scams that we hear about
everyday.
Though I know that a transaction of this magnitude will make anyone
apprehensive and worried.
Firstly I will introduce myself to you. I am Mr.(Lui Cheng), The manager,
Bills and Exchange at the Foreign Remittance & finance department,
Standard Chartered Bank, HongKong.(www.standardcharteredbank.com)
I am writing this letter to ask for your support and co-operation to carry
out this opportunity in my department.
I discovered an abandoned huge sum of money ($18,000,000.00) Eighteen
Million United State Dollars in an account that belongs to one of our
foreign
customer, an oil merchant, who is from your country. Name ( withheld).
I have served a notice to his residential address in Queen's Road East,
Hong Kong, but i got a notice that him and his wife, with his two kids were
involve in a gastly motor accident, on their way to the Airport going back
to your
country, his wife and 2kids died at the moment, but he was rush to the
hospital, and
he later died in the hospital after three days.
Since then I have made several enquiries, attempts to your embassy here to
locate
any of my clients relatives, this has also proved unsuccessful.The Bank is
making plan
to return the total fund back into the Bank treasures as unclaimed banefit,
since no one
has come for this funds.I therefore made further investigation and
discovered that the
Deceases(withheld) did not declare any next of kin or relations in all his
official documents, including his Bank Deposit paperwork in my
Bank.According to the Laws
of Hong Kong, at the expiration of 5(five) years of maturity, the money will
revert to the
Hong Kong Government if nobody applies to claim the fund. Upon this
discovery, I have agreed
to make business with you and release the total amount into your bank
account as the heir of
the fund, I have agreed to compensate you handsomely with 25% of the total
sum on successful
completion and transfer of the money into your account.
I will come to your country for investment on a lucrative business that you
may direct.
To commence this transaction, I require you to immediately indicate your
interest by a
return e-mail to my personal Email: luicheng_luic@yahoo.com
i shall then provide you with more details.
Note: Please treat with reserve and upmost maturity
Yours Faithfully,
Mr.LUI CHENG.
HONG KONG


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