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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: "PAUL RICH" <iampaulrich3@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 03:42:08 -0800
Subject: FOR YOUR ATTENTION


>From the desk of:
Mr Paul Rich
Auditor General of
Natwest Bank Group
UK.
Dear Sir/ Madam,

Greetings,

Firstly, I must first apologize for this unsolicited mail to you.
I am aware that this is certainly an unconventional approach to
starting a relationship, Pardon me for the mode that i have
chosen to contact you via your email, inappropriate maybe,
but prompted by utmost need and urgency. Be informed that this
is a sensitive proposition for assistance that must be kept
between the two of us in confidence.

I am Mr Paul Rich Auditor General of Natwest Bank Group UK. Natwest
Bank London. I am writing following an oppurtunity in my office that will be
of imense benefit to both of us. In my department an abandoned sum of
£20.5million Braitish Pounds Sterling (Twenty million five hundred
thousand British Pounds) in an account that belongs to one of our
foreign customers Late Mr. Morris Thompson an American who unfortunately
lost
his life in the plane crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 which crashed on
January 31 2000, including his wife and only daughter. You shall read
more about the crash on visiting this site.

http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/ and
http://www.nativefederation.org/history/people/mThompson.html

Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his
next of kin or relatves to come over and claim his moneybecause we cannot
release it unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to the
deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines.

Unfortunately supposed next of kin being his only daughter died along
with him in the plane crash leaving nobody with the knowledge of this
fund behind for the claim. It is therefore upon this that I and two other
officials in this department now decided to make business with you and
release the money to you as the next of kin or beneficiary of the funds
for safety keeping and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming
for it and we don't want this money to go back into Government treasury as
unclaimed bill.

The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that such money remained
after six years the money will be transferred into banking treasury as
unclaimed funds. We agreed that 35% of this money will be for you as
foreign partner, while the balance will be for me and my colleagues.
I will visit once this money gets into your account. Please be honest
to me and trust is our watchword in this transaction. Note this
transaction
is confidential and risk free.

As soon as you receive this mail you should contact me by return mail.
Please note that all necessary arrangement for the smooth release of
these funds to you has been finalised. We will discuss much in details
when I do receive your response.

Please if you are interested in this project contact me for further
directives.

Best regards

Mr Paul Rich

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