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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: "MRLANRY JOHN" <balomarotela@yahoo.co.uk> (may be fake)
Reply-To: lanry_jo@yahoo.com
Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2005 15:22:03 +0400
Subject: Attn; Director Urgent Please Get Back To Me,

Dear Partner, ( Director)

Compliment of the season.I got to know of you in
search for a reputable
and reliable person to assist me in an urgent need
requiring utmost
trust and confidentiality.

My name is Mr. Lanry John, the Auditor General of a
bank in Africa,I am
contacting you for a business transfer, of a huge sum
of money from a
deceased account,I am assuring you that everything has
been well taken
care off, I decided to contact you due to the urgency
of this
transaction.To ease your apprehension.
The amount involved is (USD $126M) One hundred and
Twenty six million
United States Dollars, I want to first transfer
$26,000,000.00 [Twenty
Six million United States Dollars] from this money
into a safe
foreigners account abroad before the rest, but I don't
know any foreigner.

I want to ask you to quietly look for a reliable and
honest person who
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
money, even an
empty a/c can serve to receive this money, as long as
you will remain
honest to me till the end of this important business
trusting in you and
believing in God that you will never let me down
either now or in future.

I am the Auditor General of a bank in Africa,during
the course of our
auditing I discovered a floating fund in an account
opened in the bank
in 1990 and since 1993 till now 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] hence
the money is
floating and if I do not remit this money out urgently
it will be forfeited
for nothing.
The owner of this account is Mr. Phillip Morris, a
foreigner, and a
sailor. he died since 1993 and uptill now 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 Phillip Morris until
his death was the manager Morris Coy.(pty). SA.

We will start the first transfer with Twenty Six
[26,000,000.00] after
and upon the successful transaction without any
disappoint from your
side, we shall re-apply for the payment of the
remaining amount to your
account.
I need your full co-operation to make this work fine
because the
management is ready to approve this payment to any
foreigner who has correct
information of this account, which I will give to you,
upon your
positive response and once I am convinced that you are
capable and will meet
up with instruction of a key bank official who is
deeply involved with
me in this business.
I need your strong assurance that you will never,never
let me down.

With my influence and the position of the bank
official, we can
transfer this money to any foreigner's with reliable
account which you can
provide with assurance that this money will be intact
pending our physical
arrival in your country for sharing.
I will apply for annual leave to get visa immediately
I hear from you
that you are ready to act and receive this fund in
your account. I will
use my position and influence to obtain all legal
approvals for onward
transfer of this money to your account with
appropriate clearance from
the relevant ministries and foreign exchange
departments.

Although personally, I kept this information secret
within myself to
enable the whole plans and idea be Profitable and
successful during the
time of execution.Due to my position in this country
as a civil
servants, i am not allowed to operate a foreign
account.

At the conclusion of this business, you will be given
35% of the total
amount, 60% will be for me, while 5% will be for
expenses of both
parties might have incurred during the process of
transferring.
I wait anxiously for your reply.


Sincerely Mr Lanry John,


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