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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: "james cole" <jamescole_56@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2005 10:17:51 -0800
Subject: NEXT-OF-KIN

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am a staff of Natwest Bank London. I am writing following an oppurtunity
in my office that will be of imense benefit to both of us.In my department
we discovered an abandoned sum of US$15 Million(FIFTEEN MILLION UNITED
STATES DOLLARS) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers
Late Mr. Morris Thompson an American who unfortunately lost his life in the
plane crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 which crashed on January 31 2000,
including his wife and only daughter. You shall read more about the crash on
visiting this site.

http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list

Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of
kin or relatives to come over and claim his money because we cannot release
it unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased
as indicated in our banking guidelines.Unfortunately I learnt that his
supposed next of kin being his only daughter died along with him in the
plane crash

leaving nobody with the knowledge of this fund behind for the claim.It is
therefore upon this discovery that I and two other officials in this
department now decided to make business with you and release the money to
you as the next of kin or beneficiary of the funds for safety keeping and
subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and we do not want
this money to go back into Government treasury as unclaimed bill.

The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that such money remained
after five years the money will be transferred into banking treasury as
unclaimed funds.

We agreed that 35% of this money will be for you as foreign partner,while
the balance will be for me and my colleagues. I will visit your country for
the disbursement according to the percentages indicated above once this
money gets into your account.

Please be honest to me and trust is our watchword in this transaction.Note
this transaction is confidential and risk free.

As soon as you receive this mail youshould contact me immediately via my

alternative email:j_cole1461@myway.com

Please note that all necessary arrangement for the smooth release of these
funds to you has been finalised. We will discuss much in details when I do
receive your response.

Please in your response include your telephone number for easy communication
between us,and your contact address.



Best Regards,

James Cole.



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