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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.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: <karlwhermanns01@ilse.nl>
Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2005 06:01:37 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: Greetings


STRICTLY CONFIDENTI0AL !!!

Please reply this mail only with my private box attorney_office@sify.com

Greetings,

Compliments of the day! It is my sincere wish to seek for your permission before drawing your attention to a very lucrative business venture l wish to undertake with you that will be mutually beneficial to both of us. Please do not be embarrassed since I have not had any previous correspondence with you. I am a Canadian attorney based in Spain and the personal attorney to late Mr. Ghassan Hilmi Hariri, a Lebanese national. Late Mr. Ghassan Hilmi Hariri was a private oil consultant/ contractor with the Shell Petroleum Development Company in Saudi Arabia before his death, hereinafter shall be referred to as my client.

My client and his wife along with their three children died in the Plane crash of Union Transport Africaines Flight Boeing 727 in Cotonou, Benin Republic on 25th day of December 2003. You will read more stories about the crash on visiting these websites:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/12/26/benin.crash / or
http://english.pravda.ru/accidents/21/97/384/11653_Aircrash.htm l

After this tragic plane crash, I conducted several enquiries from his country's embassies to locate his next of kin or any of his extended relatives, but all to no avail. After these several unsuccessful attempts, I now decided to personally contact you with this business partnership proposal. I am contacting you to assist me in repatriating a huge sum of money left behind by my late client before they get confiscated or declared unserviceable by the Finance and Security Company where this huge deposit was lodged. The deceased has a deposits valued presently at $12,000,000.00 (Twelve Million United States Dollars) in a bank at Madrid and the bank has issued me a notice as his attorney to provide his next of kin or beneficiary by will, otherwise the account would be confiscated within the next sixty working days.

Since I have been unsuccessful in locating any of my late client's relatives for six (6) months now, I now seek your consent to permit me present you as the next of kin/beneficiary of the deceased so that the proceeds of this account valued at $12 million United States Dollars can be paid to you. With my position as the attorney to the deceased, I am certain I can transfer this money to any of your designated bank account that you will make available to me but with assurance that this money will be intact pending my physical arrival in your country for our sharing. It is not necessary you must be a blood relation to late Mr. Ghassan Hilmi Hariri, neither is it necessary for you to bear the same surname as him. It is even not important for you as the stand-in next of kin to be a Lebanese national.

Already, I have worked out modalities for achieving my aim of appointing you as the next of kin as well as transfer the money abroad for us to share. I have decided to offer you 35% of the total sum as a reward for your effort in assisting me, while I take 50% of the total sum. The 5% of the fund will be set aside as reimbursement for any incidental expenses both local and international any of us made in the course of this transaction. While we shall collectively donate the remaining balance of 10% to Tsunami Relief Organisations. It is my intention to transfer this money in a legitimate way, all that I require from you is your honesty, and trust, co-operation and confidentiality to enable us complete this transaction. The money transfer paper work will include a certificate of origin so that the receiving bank (your bank in this case) does not ask questions.

Also the paper work will include proper certificate that the fund being transferred is from non-criminal sources. In short this will be a proper and legal money transfer with apparently no risk involved. The transaction is guaranteed to succeed without any problem. Consider this proposal and if you are interested to work with me to achieve my desired objective, get back to me as soon as possible so that I furnish you with more details on how we shall proceed. Thus, provide me with these information:
1. Your telephone and fax numbers.
2. Your complete location address.

Finally, it is my humble prayer that the information as contained herein be accorded the necessary attention, urgency as well as the secrecy it deserves. I expect your urgent response if you can be entrusted with this money.

Best regards,

Send your reply only to my private mailbox attorney_office@sify.com

PLEASE APPRECIATE THE FACT THAT DOING BUSINESS OVER THE INTERNET IS RISKY. THAT IS THE MORE REASON WHY I DELIBELATELY WITHHELD TO DISCLOSE MY NAME IN THIS PROPOSAL FOR SECURITY REASON. I WILL FURNISH YOU MY COMPLETE PARTICULARS ONCE I RECEIVE A POSITIVE RESPONSE FROM YOU.



















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