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: "BEN SMITH" <ben_smith3@msn.com>
Reply-To: inovzak@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 22:55:22 +0000
Subject: REGARD

Dear Friend,
I am Mr. Ben SMITH Bank Manager of Lloyds TSB bank Tower Bridge Road
London. I have urgent and very confidential business proposition for you.
On june 6, 2000, Mr. Barry Kelly made a numbered time (Fixed) Deposit for
forty-eight months, (being four years) valued at US$40,000,000.00, (forty
Million, Dollars) in my branch.
Upon maturity, I sent a routine notification to his forwarding address but
got no reply. After a month, we sent a reminder and finally we discovered
from his employers, that Mr. Barry Kelly died from tsunami on his holidays
in Thailand 26 December 2004. On further investigation, I found out that he
died without making a WILL and all attempts to trace his next of kin was
fruitless.
I therefore made further investigation and discovered that Mr. Barry Kelly
did not declare any kin or relations in all his official documents,
including his Bank Deposit paperwork in my Bank. This sum of US$40,000,000
has carefully been moved out of my bank to a security company for
safekeeping.
No one will ever come forward to claim it. According to British Law, at the
expiration of (three) years, the money will revert to the ownership of the
British Government if nobody applies to claim the fund.
Consequently, my proposal is that I will like you to stand in as the owner
of the money I deposited it in a security company in two trunk boxes though
the security company does not know the contents of the boxes as I tagged
them to be photographic materials for export. I am writing you because I as
a public servant (Manager with the bank), I cannot operate a foreign
account or have an account that is more than $1m.
I want to present you as the owner of the boxes in the security company so
you can be able to claim them with the help of my attorney. This is simple.
I will like you to provide immediately your full names and address so that
the Attorney will prepare the necessary documents which will put you in
place as the as the owner of the boxes.
The money will be moved out for us to share in the ratio of 70% for me and
30% for you. There is no risk at all as all the paperwork for this
transaction will be done by the Attorney and this will guarantees the
successful execution of this transaction.
If you are interested, please reply immediately via my email address upon
your response, I shall then provide you with more details and relevant
documents that will help you understand the transaction.
Please observe utmost confidentiality, and rest assured that this
transaction would be most profitable for both of us because I shall require
your assistance to invest my share in (Buying of properties like houses,
hotels and doing charity works etc)
Please do send me your private/mobile telephone fax number so that we can
have a smooth communication.
Awaiting your urgent reply via my email :inovzak@yahoo.co.uk

Thanks and regards.
Ben SMITH.


Anti-fraud resources: