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: "michael scott" <michael_scott4040@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: michael_scott001@yahoo.de
Date: Sun, 11 Dec 2005 15:25:47 +0100
Subject: CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS PROPOSAL FROM MR MICHAEL SCOTT


Compliments of the season,

I am Mr. Michael Scott, a manager in the Bills and Exchange at the Foreign
Remittance Department of one of the leading banks in Ghana. I am writing
this letter to ask for your support and cooperation to carry out this
business opportunity in my department.

We discovered an abandoned sum of $12,500,000.00 (Twelve Million Five
Hundred Thousand United States Dollars only) in an account that belongs to
one of our foreign customers who died along with his entire family a wife
and two children in November 1999 in an auto crash.

Since we heard of his death, we have been expecting his next-of-kin to come
over and put claims for his money as the heir, because we cannot release the
fund from his account unless someone applies for claim as the next-of-kin to
the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines. Unfortunately, neither
their family member nor distant relative has ever appeared to claim the said
fund. It is in our banking guideline that if none of the relatives come up
to claim this fund after six yearsof the death of the late customer, the
fund will be regarded as an unclaimed bill and will be transferred to the
bank's treasury account.

Upon this discovery, I and other officials in my department have agreed to
make business with you and release the total amount into your account as the
heir of the fund since no one came for it or discovered he maintained an
account with our bank, otherwise the fund will be returned to the banks
treasury as unclaimed fund. We have agreed that our ratio of sharing will be
as stated thus; 30% for you as foreign partner, 65% for us the officials in
my department and 5% for the settlement of all local and foreign expenses
incurred by us and you during the course of this business.

Upon the successful completion of this transfer, I and one of my colleagues
will come to your country and mind our share. It is from our 65% we intend
to import Agricultural Machineries into my country as a way of recycling the
fund. To commence this transaction, we require you to immediately indicate
your interest by a return e-mail with the following information:

1)Your private telephone and fax number

2)Your full name

Upon the receipt of this, i will inturn get back to you and give you the
mordalities for the bank to approve you as the next of kin. Note also, this
transaction must be kept confidential because of its nature. I look forward
to receiving your prompt response. Please get back to me at my private
email: michael_scott001@yahoo.de

Best Regards
Mr. Michael Scott

Please reply me at my email address: michael_scott001@yahoo.de


Anti-fraud resources: