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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: "STEFAN VAVTI." <stefanvavti49@yahoo.co.uk> (may be fake)
Reply-To: stefanvavti@takemail.com
Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2005 20:23:51 +0200
Subject: READ CAREFULLY PLEASE.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am Mr.Stefan Vavti, Branch Manager of Bank Austra Creditanstalt
Banking Group Limited of Wiedner Hauptstrasse
32 Postfach 39 A-1041 Wien.Austria. I have urgent and very confidential
business proposition for you.A British Oil
consultant/contractor with the Singapore Solid Minerals Corporation,
{Mr.Wilson H. Diamond} made a numbered time
(Fixed) Deposit for twelve calendar months, valued at US$10,750,000.00
(Ten Million, Seven Hundred and Fifty
Thousand Dollars) in my branch. Upon maturity, I sent a routine
notification to his forwarding address but got no reply.

After a month, we sent a reminder and finally we discovered from his
contract employers, the Singapore Solid Minerals
Corporation that Mr.Wilson H. Diamond died in a plane crash along with
his wife, Mr and Mrs Wilson & Sarah Diamond
in 2000 air crash. Since we got this information about his death. On
further investigation, I found out that he died without
making a WILL, and all attempts to trace his next of kin was fruitless.

I therefore made further investigation and discovered that Mr.Diamond
did not declare any kin or relations in all his official
documents, including his Bank Deposit paper work in my Bank. This sum
of US$11,750,000.00 is still sitting in my Bank
and the interest is being rolled over with the principal sum at the end
of each year. No one will ever come forward to claim
it.According to Laws of Austria, at the expiration of 5 (five) years
which is this year, the money will revert to the ownership
of the Government if nobody applies to claim the fund. Consequently, my
proposal is that I will like you as a foreigner to
stand in as the next of kin to Mr. Diamond so that the fruits of this
old man's labor will not get into the hands of some corrupt
government officials.

This is simple, I will like you to provide immediately your full names
and address so that the attorney will prepare the necessary
documents and affidavits that will put you in place as the next of kin.
We shall employ the services of an attorney for drafting
and notarization of the WILL and to obtain the necessary documents in
your favor for the transfer. A bank account in any part
of the world that you will provide will then facilitate the transfer of
this money to you as the beneficiary/next of kin. The money
will be paid into your account for us to share in the ratio of 70% for
me and 30% for you.

There is no risk at all as all the paperwork for this transaction will
be done by the attorney and my position as the Branch
Manager Guarantees the successful execution of this transaction. If you
are interested, please reply immediately via the private
email address below. Upon your response, I shall then provide you with
more details and relevant documents that will help you
understand the transaction. Please send me your confidential telephone
and fax numbers for easy communication. Please observe
utmost confidentiality, and be rest assured that this transaction would
be most profitable for both of us because I shall require
your assistance to invest my share in your country.

Await your reply

Best Regards
Stefan Vavti
Email: stefanvavti@takemail.com




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