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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: "first atlantic bank" <firstatlantic_2005@msn.com>
Date: Sat, 15 Oct 2005 00:32:55 +0000
Subject: ACT AS THE NEXT OF KIN.

Mr Abbey Joseph
First Atlantic Bank PLC
4/6 Adetokunbo Ademola Street
P. O. Box 75369
Victoria Island, Lagos-Nigeria
website: <www.firstatlanticbank.com>

I Am Mr Abbey Joseph in charge of bills and foreign
exchange remittance Department of First Atlantic Bank Plc.
I am writing you this letter to ask for your support and co-operation to
carry out this business opportunity in my department.

We discovered an unclaimed sum of $24.5Million (Twenty-four million five
hundred thousand dollars) in an account belonging to one of our customer,
who died in a plane crash with the entire family in year 2003.
Since we got information about his death we have been expecting his next of
kin to come over and claim his money.

Unfortunately,neither the family nor the relation has appeared to claim this
money. We cannot release this money unless somebody applies as the next of
kin or relation to the deceased.

Our banking guidelines indicated that if such money remained unclaimed for a
period of four (4) years, it would be transferred into the First Atlantic
Bank Treasury as unclaimed fund.

Another officer and I in the department now decided to transfer this
money into your account as the next of kin or relation of the deceased for
easy collection since nobody is coming for it and we dont want this money to
go back into the bank treasury as the unclaimed debt.

Infact it is my friend that advised me to urgently arrange to transfer out
this money through another foreign beneficiary outside the country.We have
decided to give you 25% of the total sum.

So please, as a matter of urgency send to me your telephone and fax numbers
for effective communication. I will do my best to see that we conclude
this transaction successfully on time.

Please if you are intrested send me an immediate mail so that I can explain
the details to you to understand everything about this business Waiting
for your urgent response.
Regards,
Mr Abbey Joseph.
PLS REPLY TO (abbeyjoseph_2005@yahoo.com)


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