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.Benard Mcarthy" <benard_mcarthy@emsergipe.com>
Reply-To: benard_mcarthy@centrum.cz
Date: Sat, 22 Oct 2005 18:25:42 -0300
Subject: Regards


#1105 james park,
johannesburg,
southafrica.

Compliments Of The Day,


Permit me to introduce myself to you. My name is Dr Benard Mcarthy,A Top Management Official of one of the finance corporation in johannesburg south Africa.I came to know about you in my private search for a reliable person/company to handle an important assingment on behalf of my Colleagues and myself.As a matter of fact, I got your information from Miss Natasha Johnson of The International Affairs Department Of The South African Chamber Of Business.

Proposition A German Mr. Wolfgang Schinister, 66 years of age and a prosperous oil/Diamond merchant had in our Bank the sum of $35.5million in a domiciliary account.

Unfortunately, he was killed in 2002 plane crash involving concord AF4590 in Gonesse, France. Efforts has 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,as we are made to
understand he had no children.Given the skeletal information available to the bank, it has so far been impossible to reach any of the relatives.

The situation left for the Management is to declare the deceased account dormant and revert the Amount to trading on behalf of the interest of the Bank.

In order to avoid this development, my Colleagues and I now seek your approval to have you stand as a distant relative to Mr.Wolfgang Schinister,so that the money would be released to you. All documents and proofs to enable you get the money will be carefully packaged once we receive your consent on this proposal.I shall Apply for a leave as soon as the funds gets into your reliable account to come to your country for possible sharing and investment

opportunity which you will assist me in doing.May I assure you that this is safe and risk-free, as we have taken care of all necessary modalities to ensure a hitch-free movement. I have the authority of my partners involved in this assignment to propose that should you be willing to assist us in this,your share would be 30%.

I have reposed my confidence in you and hope that you will not disappoint me.

Please Copy your reply to (benard3@mail.austria.com) if you are interested in my offer/proposal.

Best Regards,

Dr.Benard Mcarthy


Anti-fraud resources: