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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 Jones" <mrjamesjones@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: equitylawfirm2@excite.com
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2005 16:41:16 +0000
Subject: GREETING

JAMES JONES
EQUITY LAW FIRM
NIGERIA

Hello,

I am Barrister James Jones. I am the Personal Attorney to Engr Mark
Branch,who worked for a Multinational company in Nigeria. On the 31st of oct
2001, my client,his wife And their three children were involved in an auto
crash,Unfortunately they All lost their lives in the event of the accident.

Since then I have made several enquiries to his Embassy to locate any of my
clients extended relatives, this has also proved un successful. After these
several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to trace his relatives over the
Internet to locate any member of his family but to no avail, hence I
contacted you. I contacted you to assist in repartrating, because i dont
want this money to get confiscated or declared unserviceable by the bank
where this huge deposits were lodged.

Particularly, the Bank where the deceased had an account valued at about
US$15.5MILLIONS (fifteen million five hundred thousand ). Conseqently,The
bank issued me a notice to provide the next of kin or have the account
confiscated within the next twenty one official working days. since I have
been unsuccesfull in locating the relatives for over 2 years now. I seek
your consent to present you as the next of kin of the deceased. This account
valued at $15.5 million U.S dollars
can be paid to you and after which the fund can be shared accoding to
agreement between both party that 50% shall go to me and 40% to you, 5% for
charity, while 5% should be for expenses or tax as your government may
reqiure.


I have all necessary documents to back up claims as Next of Kin on your
behalf. All I require is your honest cooperation to enable us see this deal
through. I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate
arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law.

Trusting to hear from you.

Your respectfully,

JAMES JONES
EQUITY LAW FIRM


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