joewein.de LLC fighting spam and scams on the Internet

Try our spam filter! Free trial for 30 days

"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
• "Is that email a scam?" - Check it online here!
  
• Frequently asked Questions (419 FAQ)
• Phone numbers used by 419 scammers
  (+225 +229 +234 +27 +31 +32 +34 +44 other)
• Company names mentioned in 419 spam:
  1 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
• Support our efforts to stop scams!
  
• How to report 419 spam to us
• What can you do when you receive 419 spam
  
  
• Spam archive, Daily index
  

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.

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: "lanre coleman" <mohamoha6@msn.com>
Reply-To: pheralzons48@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Sat, 24 Dec 2005 12:26:48 +0000
Subject: Re: Richard Quandt

I am Lanre Cole, the Human Resources Executive of Atlantic Oil & Gas
Corporation. On the 15th of May 2002, Richard Quandt, an expatriate, who was
a consultant/contractor with the Corporation, was found to have died in a
plane crash along the Lekki Peninsula while on inspection tour of offshore
oil facilities belonging to the Corporation.

As the Welfare Director of the corporation, I contacted Richard's bankers
and briefed them of this development. The bankers informed me that since
their client is dead, it is only the next of kin to the deceased with the
proper legal documents that can compel them to pay his fixed deposit as an
inherited estate. With the position of the financial outfit, I mandated the
legal department of our firm to search for a relative of the deceased so
that he can be presented as the next of kin
to the bank. But the only relative of the deceased, one Mr. Sam Leonard who
was also the next of kin to the deceased according to his bank documents and
who was last known to have lived in Latvia Eastern Europe, died as cancer
patient some two months before his death. All efforts to trace other
relatives of the deceased proved abortive, as all available links were
exhusted.

Three years after his death, with no news from any relative living anywhere
and no one coming forward, we decided to seek a foreigner so that the fund
can be transferred out of its present account to yours. The account deposit
contains US$12 million United States Dollars and it is important that a
probable next of kin claims this fund within the next fourteen official
working
days. If no one comes for the claim before the stipulated time frame, the
account would be closed as inactive and dormant and funds sent to the
coffers of the government. This is in consonance with the stipulations of
the enabling laws governing foreign inherited estates.

I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin of the deceased. This
would facilitate the payment of the proceeds of the said account to you. All
I require is your honest cooperation to enable us seeing this through. I
guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate
arrangement that will protect all the parties involved from any breach of
the law.

Please let me know what you intend to have as your commission if you agree
to embark on this venture.

Best Regards,

Lanre Cole.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam