joewein.net   joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days
  jwSpamSpy

Home
About Us
Spam
419/Nigeria
Fraud
Contact

"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: "Geoffrey wilson" <geoffywilson@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: geoffrey_wilson1@hotmail.com
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2005 07:10:38 -0400
Subject: Good day

Good day,

I am Geoffrey wilson, staff of International Private Banking at our Bank. I
am contacting you concerning a deceased customer and an investment he placed
under our banks management three years ago. I would respectfully request
that you keep the contents of this mail confidential and respect the
integrity of the information you come by as a result of this mail.

I contacted you independently of our investigation and no one is informed of
this communication. I would like to intimate you with certain facts that I
believe would be of interest to you. In 2000, the subject matter; came to
our bank to engage in business discussions with our private banking
division. He informed us that he had a financial portfolio of Thirty two
million seven hundred thousand united state dollars, which he wished to have
us turn over (invest) on his behalf. I was the officer assigned to his case;
I made numerous suggestions in line with my duties as the de-facto chief
operations officer of the private banking sector, especially given the
volume of funds he wished to put into our bank. We met on numerous occasions
prior to any investments being placed. I encouraged him to consider various
growth funds with prime ratings. The favored route in my advice to customers
is to start by assessing data on 6000 traditional stocks and bond managers
and 2000 managers of alternative investments. Based on my advice, we spun
the money around various opportunities and made attractive margins for our
first months of operation, the accrued profit and interest stood at this
point at over ten million United States Dollars, this margin was not the
full potential of the fund but he desired low risk guaranteed returns on
investments. In mid 2001, he asked that the money be liquidated because he
needed to make an urgent investment requiring cash payments in here in the
United Kingdom. He directed that I liquidate the funds and deposit it with a
security firm in here London.

I informed him that the bank would have to make special arrangements to have
this done and in order not to circumvent due process, the bank would have to
make a 9.5 % deduction from the funds to cater for banking and statutory
charges. He complained about the charges but later came around when I
explained to him the complexities of the task he was asking of us. Cash
movement across boarders has become especially strict since the incidents of
9/11. I contacted my affiliate in here in London and made the funds
available to the security firm. I undertook all the processes and made sure
I followed his precise instructions to the letter and had the funds
deposited at the London based security consultancy firm, Corporate
Securities Co.
Corporate Securities Co is a specialist private firm that accepts deposits
from high net worth individuals and blue chip corporations that handle
valuable products or undertake transactions that need immediate access to
cash. This small and highly private organization is familiar especially to
the highly placed and well-connected organizations. In line with
instructions, the money was deposited with Corporate Securities Co. The
deceased told me he wanted the money there in anticipation of his arrival
from Norway later that week. This was the last communication we had, this
transpired around 25th February 2003.

In June last year, we got a call from Corporate Securities Co informing us
that the activity of that particular portfolio. This was an astounding
position as far as I was concerned, given the fact that I managed the
private banking sector I was the only one who knew about the deposit at
Corporate Securities Co, and I could not understand why the deceased had not
come forward to claim his deposit. I made futile efforts to locate the
deceased in his country, he was a Russian business man, A former deputy
chief executive if I recall correctly and part of the so-called oligarchy.
I immediately passed the task of locating him to the internal investigations
department of the bank. Four days later, information started to trickle in,
apparently our client was dead. A person who suited his description was
declared dead of a heart attack in Cannes, South of France.

We were soon able to identify the body and cause of death was confirmed. The
bank immediately launched an investigation into possible surviving next of
kin to alert about the situation and also to come forward to claim his
estate. If you are familiar with private banking affairs, those who
patronize our services usually prefer anonymity, but also some levels of
detachment from conventional processes. In his bio-data form, he listed no
next of kin. In the field of private banking, opening an account with us
means no one will know of its existence, accounts are rarely held under a
name; depositors use numbers and codes to make the accounts anonymous. This
bank also gives the choice to depositors of having their mail sent to them
or held at the bank itself, ensuring that there are no traces of the account
and as I said, rarely do they nominate next of kin. Private banking clients
apart from not nominating next of kin also usually in most cases leave wills
in our care, in this case; the deceased died without a testate.

In line with our internal processes for account holders who have passed
away, we instituted our own investigations in good faith to determine who
should have right to claim the estate. This investigation has for the past
months been unfruitful. We have scanned every continent and used our private
investigation affiliate companies to get to the root of the problem. It is
this investigation that resulted in my being furnished with your details as
a possible relative of the deceased. My official capacity dictates that I am
the only party to supervise the investigation and the only party to receive
the results of the investigation. What this means, you being the last batch
of names we have considered, is that our dear late fellow died with no known
or identifiable family member. This leaves me as the only person with the
full picture of what the prevailing situation is in relation to the deposit
and the late beneficiary of the deposit.

According to practice, Corporate Securities Co will by the end of this
financial year broadcast a request for statements of claim to our bank,
failing to receive viable claims they will most probably revert the deposit
back to the bank. This will result in the money entering the bank accounting
system and the portfolio will be out of my hands and out of the private
banking division. This will not happen if I have my way. What I wish to
relate to you will smack of unethical practice but I want you to understand
something. It is only an outsider to the banking world who finds the
internal politics of the banking world aberrational. The world of private
banking especially is fraught with huge rewards for those who occupy certain
offices and oversee certain portfolios. You should have begun by now to put
together the general direction of what I propose. I alone have the deposit
details and they will release the deposit to no one unless I instruct them
to do so.

I alone know of the existence of this deposit for as far as the bank is
concerned, the transaction with our late customer concluded when I sent the
funds to corporate securities, all outstanding interactions in relation to
the file are just customer services and due process. Corporate Securities
Co, has no single idea of what the history or nature of the deposit. They
are simply awaiting instructions to release the deposit to any party that
comes forward. This is the situation. This bank has spent great amounts of
money trying to track this mans family; they have investigated for months
and have found no family. The investigation has come to an end. My proposal;
you share similar details to the late fellow; I am prepared to place you in
a position to instruct Corporate Securities Co to release the deposit to you
as the closest surviving relation.

Upon receipt of the deposit, I am prepared to share the money with you in
half. That is: I will simply nominate you as the next of kin and have them
release the deposit to you. We share the proceeds 50/50. I would have gone
ahead to ask the funds be released to me, but that would have drawn a
straight line to me and my involvement in claiming the deposit. I assure you
that I could have the deposit released to you within a few days. I will
simply inform the bank of the final closing of the file relating to the
deceased I will then officially communicate with Corporate Securities Co and
instruct them to release the deposit to you. With these two things: all is
done. The alternative would be for us to have Corporate Securities Co direct
the funds to another bank with you as account holder. This way there will be
no need for you to think of receiving the money from Corporate Securities
Co. We can fine-tune this based on our interactions. I am aware of the
consequences of this proposal. I ask that if you find no interest in this
project that you should discard this mail. I ask that you do not be
vindictive and destructive.

If my offer is of no appeal to you, delete this message and forget I ever
contacted you. Do not destroy my career because you do not approve of my
proposal


I await your response

Regards,

Geoffrey wilson


Anti-fraud resources: