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.

 

 

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

Fraud email example:

From: Dr Louis Mcarthy <ben_louis33@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: ben_louis@walla.com
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 16:54:20 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: From Dr Louis



Compliments of the day,
I am seeking for a reliable and honest person who will be capable and fit to provide either an existing bank account or set up a new bank account immediately to receive this US$35.5 million dollars(Thirty-Five Million,Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars Only). Even an empty account can serve this purpose,or you help to seek an honest and reliable businessman who can assist us.
I am Dr Louis Mcarthy, an accountant and bank manager, during the course of our auditing I discovered this fund in a domiciliary account opened in my bank in 1990 and since 1993 nobody has operated on this account. After going through some old files in the records I discovered that the owner of the account who is
a foreigner, a German Mr Wolfgang Schinister, 66 years of age and a prosperous Oil\Gold merchant was killed in the recent plane crash involving concord AF4590 in Gonesse, France.
Efforts had been made by the management of my bank through the German Embassy in johannesburg to contact any of the deceased children but to no avail and without any traceable next of kin, Hence this brought about the dormant nature of the account and if I do not remit this money out urgently it will be re-channeled into
the bank's reserve.
In order to avoid this development, my Colleagues and I now seek your approval to have you stand as a distant relative/next of kin to Mr.Wolfgang Schinister,so that the money would be released to you.
Upon the successful transfer of the fund into your nominated account,I shall apply for retirement and come over to your country with my family for the sharing of the fund. I am only contacting you as a foreigner because this money cannot be approved for a local account here and I am not supposed to be in possession of such amount of dollars, but the fund can only be approved to any foreigner or into a foreign account.
I suggest we meet face to face to get acquainted, as the fund in question is a large one before we commence with transfer. I need your full co-operation to make this work fine, as I will use my office to see that the transaction is neatly done and I will destroy all documents relating to the transaction once we conclude the transaction.
On the conclusion of this business, you will be given 30% of the total amount, while 10% of the money will be for expenses both parties might have incurred during the process of this transaction.
If you are intrested in this offer/proposal, please send your reply/phone number to (ben_louis@walla.com) I look forward to your earliest reply .
Best regards,
Dr Louis Mcarthy.
Republic Of South Africa




---------------------------------
Yahoo! Music Unlimited - Access over 1 million songs. Try it free.

Anti-fraud resources: