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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: "pduncan1960" <pduncan1960@terra.com.mx>
Date: Sat, 22 Jul 2006 03:29:37 -0600
Subject: Hello


PROPOSITION:
I am Mr Philip Duncan, Account officer of a foreigner, named Gerald Welsh who died in an air crash along with his wife on the 31st October 1999 in an Egyptian airline with other passengers on board. You can confirm this fact from the website which was aired by the BBC WORLD NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/502503.stm
Since his death, none of his relations or persons have come forward to lay claims to his funds as next-of-kin, and on my own I have made concerted effort to locate any of his relatives but all proved abortive, which makes me to believe that maybe nobody of his knows that he was operating this foreign account with my bank. Based on the ethics and policies of the bank, this fund will be declared unclaimed funds and taken to the treasury of the bank as capital base of the bank, because already the account has been tagged dormant because it has exceeded the normal functional number of years.
We cannot release the fund from his account unless someone applies for it or lays claim as the next-of-kin to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines and the European banking laws. Upon this discovery, I now seek your permission and assistance to present you and have you stand as a next of kin to the deceased, so that the funds can be released and transfer to you, as all documentations will be carefully worked out from the bank you applying legally for the funds (US$29,520,000.00) to be released in your favor as the beneficiary's next of kin. It may interest you to know that I have secured from the probate commission an order of mandamus to locate any of the deceased beneficiaries.

Please acknowledge receipt of this message in acceptance of our mutual business endeavor by furnishing me with the following information if you are interested.
1 A Beneficiary name. In which the funds document can be prepared.
2 Direct Telephone and fax number. For our personal contact.
Upon your acceptance I shall send you my identity for more confidentiality and trust in each other as I shall trust you not to elope with this fund when it finally gets to your account. I shall be compensating you with 20% of the sum of (US$29,520,000.00) Fifteen Million United State Dollars on final conclusion of this project for your assistance, while the balance, I shall use in prolific investment projects as I intend to retire after the conclusion of this transaction. If this proposal is acceptable to you, please endeavor to contact me immediately.
philipduncanmail@yahoo.co.uk
Yours truly,
Philip Duncan.


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