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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: "dr.larson zuma" <dr.larsongilbertz@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 01 Dec 2006 15:01:38 +0200
Subject: BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY/YOUR ASSISTANCE IS NEE

Dr.Larson Gilbert Zuma.
#67 Cresent Close,
Lynnwood Road Hatfield
Pretoria.
Gauteng, South Africa.  
 
                                      Dear Sir/Madam,
 

I sincerely ask for forgiveness for I know this may seem like a complete intrusion to your privacy but right now this is my option of communication, As this mail might come to you as a surprise and the temptation to ignore it as unserious could come into your mind; but please consider it a divine wish and accept it with a deep sense of humility. 
 
I am aware that this is certainly an unconventional approach to starting a relationship. I am Dr.Larson Gilbert Zuma, the personal account officer to the great late diseased who has an account in one of the top banks here in South Africa. We discovered an abandoned Eighteen Million Six hundred thousand United States Dollars (US$ 18,600,000.00 Million) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers whose name is Mr. Andreas Schranner German citizen who died in a plane crash 6 years ago. Since his death, none of his next-of-kin or relations has come forward to lay claims for this money. We cannot release the fund from his account unless someone applies for claim as the next-of kin to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines. The account was opened in 1991 and he died in 2000 without a written or oral WILL and since 2000 nobody has operated on this account again hence the money is floating and if I do not remit this money out urgently it will be forfeited for nothing and Govt. of South Africa will confiscate the funds for their personal use which I personally don't want such incident to happen being that this is a great opportunity for me and you.
 
And upon maturity I made much effort to contact my client, l could not reach him. I was forced to travel to Germany and there I got the tragic news that, my client Mr. Andreas Schranner, his wife Maria, their daughter Andrea Eich, his son in law Christian, and their children Maximilian and Katharina, all perished on the Monday, 31 July, 2000 plane crash in western German city of Moenchengladbach, It may interest you to know that we have secured from the probate an order of mandamus to locate any of deceased beneficiaries. And for your perusal you may view this website:
                       (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm)
 
Upon this discovery, we now seek your permission to have you stand as a next of kin to the deceased as all documentations will be carefully worked out by us for the funds to be released in your favour as the beneficiaries’ next of kin. 
 
My contact is for you to assist me to transfer the fund ($18,600,000.00 USD) Eighteen Million Six hundred thousand United States Dollars from a Cooperate Bank here in South Africa to an oversea account. First, I must solicit your strictest confidence in this transaction. This is by virtue of its nature as being utterly confidential. I am sure and have confidence of your ability and reliability to prosecute a transaction of this great magnitude. I solicit your assistance to enable us transfer the said amount into your safe account for onward investment.
 
You can either provide us with an existing account or to set up a new Bank account immediately to receive this money, even an empty a/c can serve to receive this money, as long as you will remain honest to me till the end of this important business trusting in you and believing that you will never let me down either now or in future because this business is my life, The owner of this account is a foreigner and no other person knows about this account or anything concerning it, the account has no other beneficiary and until his death he was the manager of the company. My investigation through the National immigration department & Ministries here proved to me as well that he was single as at the time of his entry into the Republic of South Africa. The amount in this account is USD ($18,600,000.00 USD) Eighteen Million Six hundred thousand United States Dollars only.

As a matter of fact, your assistance as a foreigner is necessary because the management of the bank will welcome any foreigner who has correct information to this account, which I will give to you immediately, if you are interested to do this business with me. There is no risk in this business, with my position and my personal contact with the manager of the bank the money can be transferred to any account you will provide with assurance that this money will be intact pending our physical arrival in your country for sharing. I am only contacting you as a foreigner because this money cannot be approved to a local person here, but can only be approved to any foreigner who has the correct information of the account, which I will provide for you.
 
 So you should provide me with your correct account details where you will like the fund to be transferred to, or you can set up a new account for the transfer even an empty account is ok. At the conclusion of the transfer you will take 25% and 5% will be for any expenses both parties incurred in the process of this business and the remaining 70% will be for me. As soon as I hear from you and upon your strong assurance that you will not let me down once the fund goes into your account I will then start the processing of the transfer of the fund to your account without further delay.  If you are interested, please forward the following information as below:

{1} Your full Name/company's name and full address,
{2} Bank Name & address
{3} Bank Account No..
{4} Swift Code...{if any}
{5} Account Holder's Name:
{6} Your Occupation & Valid ID Number
{7} Your telephone Nos.both Home, Office & Cell/Mobile and fax Numbers...
 
Upon the receipt of the above details, payment will be activated by the feeding of your data into payment system, followed by a signal that will be sent to the paying bank to remit funds into your nominated bank account within 5 official working days of receipt of the above information.
Contact me urgently via email privately for further details:  (dr.larsongilbertzuma@webmail.co.za)

Best Regards
Dr.Larson Gilbert Zuma.
 


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