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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: vart consultant <vart@vart1.orangehome.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2006 20:16:18 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: FROM THE DESK OF KAREN STEYTER:


FROM THE DESK OF KAREN STEYTER:
VART CONSULTANT SA.

Dearest Friend,

With due esteem respect please I beg your pardon for this unsolicited nature; it was out of desperation and Curiosity that made me to contact you. To introduce myself, I am (Karen Steyter} I am the personal accountant to DR AHMED O.S. ABONOSER, a national of Egypt, who used to work with Capresa -Calibrados de Precision SA {CCDP} Steel Company here in Spain, herein shall be referred as my customer.
On the 11th of March 2004 at about 0639 Gmt, my customer, his wife {Lady Halima and their two children{Ali and Aysha} were involved in a ghastly Train Bomb blast along Atocha Train Centre here in Madrid, that got 191 people killed ,and 1,800 injured, unfortunately, him and his family were victims that lost their lives. You can view this page for more information {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_11%2C_2004_Madrid_attacks} since then I have made several enquiries to his embassy to locate any of my customer’s extended relatives, this has also proved unsuccessful.
After these several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to track his last name over the Internet, to locate any member of his family or any close name to his which was still unsuccessful, hence I contacted you. I am contacting you to assist in repatriating the money and property left behind by my client before they get liquidated or declared Unserviceable by the bank where this huge deposits were lodged, particularly the Swiss Investment Bank, Citi Bank where the deceased had his account valued precisely to be €4,546,810.00 (Four Million five hundred and fourty six thousand eight hundred and ten Euro).
The bank has issued me a notice to provide the next of kin or have the account liquidated within the next twenty one official working days.
Consequently, my proposal is that I will like you as a foreigner from another country to stand in as the next of kin to the deceased, so that the fruits of this old man's labour will not get into the hands of some group of corrupt officials who will get rid of the money and share it for their own interest and greed.
Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for over 5 months now, I seek your prompt consent to present you as the next of kin of the deceased so that the proceeds of this account valued at €4,546,810.00M can be paid to you and then you and I can share the money according to any agreed ratio.
All I require is your honest co-operation to enable us see this deal through. I guarantee that this will be executed under legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law.
Looking forward to your swift reply, please kindly reply with my secured email: karensteyter@aim.com

Yours truly,
Karen Steyter
Vart Consultant S.A
Madrid, Spain.
Email:karensteyter@aim.com

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