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.

 

 

Fraud email example:

From: "GEORGE WILLIAMS" <williams_803@msn.com>
Reply-To: fullmoontime@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 20:01:03 +0000
Subject: URGENT PLEASE READ!!!

Hello,

I am George Williams, staff of International Private
Banking at our Bank. I am contacting you concerning a
deceased customer and an investment he placed under
our banks management three years ago. I would
respectfully request that you keep the contents of
this mail confidential and respect the integrity of
the information you come by as a result of this mail
Certain facts that I believe would be of interest to
you need to be made clear so that you can have a good
insight into what I am about to offer you. The above
mentioned individual commenced business with us in
2000, he informed us that he had a financial portfolio
of Thirty two million seven hundred thousand united
state dollars, which he wished to have us turn over
(invest) on his behalf , I was the officer assigned to
his case; in my position as the de-facto chief
operations officer of the private banking sector I
proffered many investment opportunities to him. After
several meeting an investment portfolio was agreed
upon and I went full fledge investing the money into
various growth funds with prime ratings. Based on my
advice, we spun the money around various opportunities
and made attractive margins for our first months of
operation, the accrued profit and interest stood at
this point at over ten million United States Dollars,
this margin was not the full potential of the fund but
he desired low risk guaranteed returns on investments.
In mid 2002, he asked that the money be liquidated
because he needed to make an urgent investment
requiring cash payments in here in the United Kingdom.
He directed that I liquidate the funds and deposit it
with a security firm in here London
Based on is impromptu decision in terminating the
funds investment and in order not to circumvent due
process a 9.5 % deduction was made from the funds to
cater for banking and statutory charges. He complained
about the charges but later came around when I
explained to him the complexities of the task he was
asking of us. Cash movement across boarders has become
especially strict since the incidents of 9/11. I
contacted my affiliate here in London and made the
funds available to the security firm. I undertook all
the processes and made sure I followed his precise
instructions to the letter and had the funds deposited
at the London based security consultancy firm.
Corporate Securities Co is a specialist private firm
that accepts deposits from high net worth individuals
and blue chip corporations that handle valuable
products or undertake transactions that need immediate
access to cash. This small and highly private
organization is familiar especially to the highly
placed and well-connected organizations. In line with
instructions, the money was deposited with Corporate
Securities Co. The deceased told me he wanted the
money there in anticipation of his arrival from Norway
later that week. This was the last communication we
had, this transpired around 25th February 2003.
In June last year, I got a call from Corporate
Securities Co informing me that the activity of that
particular portfolio has matured and that they can not
reach my client, hence the need to contact me. This
was an astounding position as far as I was concerned,
given the fact that I managed the private banking
sector I was the only one who knew about the deposit
at Corporate Securities Co, and I could not understand
why the deceased had not come forward to claim his
deposit. I made futile efforts to locate the deceased
in his country, he was a Russian business man, a
former deputy chief executive if I recall correctly
and part of the so-called oligarchy. I immediately
passed the task of locating him to an investigating
firm, four days later, information started to trickle
in, apparently our client was dead. A person who
suited his description was declared dead of a heart
attack in Cannes, South of France.
Once this information was confirmed I re-instructed
the investigation firm to immediately launch an
investigation into possible surviving next of kin to
alert about the situation and also to come forward to
claim his estate. If you are familiar with private
banking affairs, those who patronize our services
usually prefer anonymity, but also some levels of
detachment from conventional processes. In his
bio-data form, he listed no next of kin. In the field
of private banking, opening an account with us means
no one will know of its existence, accounts are rarely
held under a name; depositors use numbers and codes to
make the accounts anonymous.
This bank also gives the choice to depositors of
having their mail sent to them or held at the bank
itself, ensuring that there are no traces of the
account and as I said, rarely do they nominate next of
kin. Private banking clients apart from not nominating
next of kin also usually in most cases leave wills in
our care, in this case; the deceased died without a
testate. The investigation has for the past months
been unfruitful, having used other private
investigation companies to get to the root of the
problem. It is this investigation that resulted in my
being furnished with your details as a possible
relative of the deceased.
Corporate Securities Co will by the end of this
financial year broadcast a request for statements of
claim or they will have no option to revert the funds
back to my bank as the facilitator of the deposit on
behalf of the deceased. This will result in the money
entering the bank accounting system and the portfolio
will be out of my hands and out of the private banking
division. This will not happen if I have my way.
Corporate Securities Co, has no single idea of what
the history or nature of the deposit, they are simply
awaiting instructions to release the deposit to any
party that comes forward.
This is the situation, I have spent huge amount of my
personal money trying to locate the next of kin; I
have investigated for months and have found no family.
The investigation has come to an end. My proposal; you
share similar details to the late fellow; I am
prepared to place you in a position to instruct
Corporate Securities Co to release the deposit to you
as the closest surviving relation.
Upon receipt of the deposit, I am prepared to share
the money with you in half. That is: I will simply
nominate you as the next of kin and have them release
the deposit to you. We share the proceeds 50/50. I
would have gone ahead to ask the funds be released to
me, but that would have drawn a straight line to me
and my involvement in claiming the deposit. The
alternative would be for us to have Corporate
Securities Co direct the funds to another bank with
you as account holder.
This way there will be no need for you to think of
receiving the money from Corporate Securities Co. We
can fine-tune this based on our interactions, I am
aware of the consequences of this proposal I therefore
ask that if you find no interest in this project you
should discard this mail.

If my offer is of no appeal to you, delete this
message and forget I ever contacted you,but if it is
please contact me through this email address
fullmoontime@gmail.com .Do not destroy my career
because you do not approve of my proposal as that will be
vindictive and destructive.

I await your response.

George Williams.


Anti-fraud resources: