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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: "Richard Owen" <richardowen112@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: fin1335@postino.it
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 10:02:34 -0400
Subject: ACKNOWLEDGE MY MAIL.

From: Mr. Richard Owen
Head of Operations,
Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co.
Address: 7 Windmill St,
Soho, London, W1T 2JD
Dear Sir,
I am MR RICHARD OWEN, The Head of Operations Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co.
I am writing following an opportunity in my office that will be of immense
benefit to both of us. In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of
US$10.5M (Ten Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollar) 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, which I got during my investigation: -

http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/ and
http://www.nativefederation.org/history/people/mThompson.html

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
don’t 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 30% of this money will be for you as foreign
partner, and 10% will be used to care for any expenses You and I incurred,
while 60% will be for I 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. Note this transaction is
confidential and risk free. As soon as you receive this mail you should
contact me through my e-mail address: fin1335@postino.it, please note that
all necessary arrangement for the Smooth release of these funds to you as
has been finalized.
We will discuss much in details when I do receive your response.
Best Regards,
Mr. Richard Owen
Private email address: fin1335@postino.it,


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