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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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: Alex Williams <alex_williams107@yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 2 Sep 2006 00:44:28 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Request for your co-operation / Assistantce.


Request for your co-operation / Assistantce.

(TRANSFER OF US$22.5M)

Dear friend,

My name is Mr. Alex Williams with the funds transfer department STANDARD CHARETERED BANK IN LONDON.

we had a foreing customer who deposited a huge sum of money with our bank, who latter died as a result of plane crash in 1999.
before his death he transfered the sum of us$22.5 (twenty two million five hundred thousand united states dollars) to our correspondent bank in manchester city branch since the death of this customer.


i personally have watched with keen interest to see the next of kin but all has proved aboretive as no one has come to claim this funds and our correspondence bank has threatened several times to return this funds of us$22.5m twenty two million five hundred thousand united states dollars to our treasury.

on this note, i was contacted by the Accountant of our correspondence bank in manchester city branch in regards to this pending claims, that was why i decided to seek for whose name shall be used as the next of kin.
in view of this i got your contact through the courtesy of business opportunity and through the inquiry from business sites after i was convinced by providence that you could be used as the next of kin. the quest of the foreing as a next of kin in the business is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreingner i want to assure you that all official related to modalities to claim this funds has been carefully taken care of all we need is your co-operation and honesty as we are fronting you to claim this funds as the next of kin to our late customer.

we agreed that us$7 million of this money will be for you as a foreing partner,while the rest will be for us, immediately the claim is authenticated by the bank board of directors and the funds release into your personal bank account .i will vissit your country for disbursement as i am almost due for retirement.

therefore, to facilitate the immediate transfer of this fund to your account, you must provide as follows.

(1),your bank account details for this funds.
(2),your private phone and fax numbers.
(3),your mailing address.

this will enable us file in an application on your behalf as the next of kin to the deceased.

upon receip of your response, we shall communicate the next step to take endeavour to contact me through this. due to the delicate nature of this transaction, i strongly advice that you do not divulge this information to a third party.

keep confidential.

email: alex_williams107@yahoo.com

your's faithfully.

Mr. Alex Williams



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