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: "Mr. Joel Williams" <joelwilliams19110@yahoo.fr>
Reply-To: joelwilliams1911@zwallet.com
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2006 22:55:28 +0100
Subject: Reply Urgently


FROM: Mr. Joel Williams,
BANQUE INTERNATIONALE DU BENIN.
RUE CLUB DE L' AMITIE,
0251 B.P. 1625 COTONOU,
BéNIN REPUBLIQUE.

My Dear Friend,

In Oder to transfer to overseas $28.5 million(USD)
from BANQUE INTERNATIONALE DU BENIN,Bénin Republique.
I want to ask you to quietly look for a reliable
and honest person who will be capable and fit to
provide either an existing bank account or to set up a
new Bank a/c immediately to receive this money, even
an empty a/c can serve to receive this funds quitely.

I am Mr. Joel Williams, the accountant/auditor of
the above Finance Corporation in Cotonou,Bénin
Republique and personal confidant to Mr.Lius Rio Mendez
of Dominican Republic in Caribbean Island who died in
a Plane Crash accident(2002-04-19) on his way to
attend a weddind ceremony together with his wife and
only Child (Lius Jr).

Mr.Lius Rio Mendez, is From Dominican Republic in
Caribbean Island, and a prosperous Tobacco merchant,
he died in the year 2002 without having any
beneficiary to his assets including his account
here in Bénin which he opened in the above stated bank
in the year 2001 as his personal savings for the
purpose of expansion and developement of his company
in Africa before his untimely death in 2002.Until his
death,he was the president of the Dominican Tobacco
Exporters Association.

And from my Investigation,i found out that No other
person knows about this account because he(Mr.Lius Rio Mendez)
never knew that he is going to die so soon,
and so his purpose was not achieved. If i don't remit
this money immediately, it will get lost(may be it
will go into the pockets of the corrupt government
officials who will never use it for any reasonable
thing at all).I dont want to miss this opportunity
because it comes ones in a life time.

The amount involved is $28.5 million(USD)Twenty eight
million,five hundred United States Dollars and no
other person knows about this account. I am contacting
you for us to transfer this funds to your account as
the beneficiary,I want to first transfer
$16,000.000..00(Sixteen million USD) from this money
into a safe account abroad, after which we will
transfer the remaining (12.5M). I am only contacting
you as a foreigner because this money cannot be
approved to a local person here, without a valid
foreign international passport, but can only be
approved to any foreigner with valid international
passport or drivers license and foreign a/c, this is
because the money is in US Dollars and the former
owner of the a/c, Mr.Lius Rio Mendez is a foreigner too,
and as such the money can only be approved into a
foreign a/c.

However, I am revealing this to you with belief in
God that you will never let me down in this business.I
don't know you and have never seen you before,i only
got your contacts from an international directory
which my secretary provided for me. You are the first
and the only person that I am contacting for this
business, so please reply urgently so that I will
inform you the next step to take. Send also your
private telephone and fax number.

I need your full co-operation to make this work
because the management is ready to approve this
payment to any foreigner who has correct information
of this account,which I will give to you, upon your
positive response and once I am convinced that you are
capable and will meet up with instruction of a keybank
official who is deeply involved with me in this
business.
I want to tell you that this transaction is 100% risk
free and legal because all the documents that will
back up this transaction will be available, so that no
body will question the fund when it is finaly
tranfered to your account.

At the conclusion of this business, you will be given
40% of the total amount and 60% will be for me. I look
forward to your earliest reply through this email.

Thanks for your time.

Your's faithfully,

Mr. Joel Williams

Anti-fraud resources: