joewein.net   joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days
  jwSpamSpy

Home
About Us
Spam
419/Nigeria
Fraud
Contact

"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: "James Clerk" <jam_cler03@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: james_clerk4444@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Fri, 01 Jun 2007 13:52:30 -0600
Subject: HELLO DEAR

Dear Sir,
  
My name is James Clerk, I work with a Bank here in London,United Kingdom (name withheld for security reasons). I have urgent and very confidential business proposition for you which is not intended for you to spend money or assist financially as i have made arrangment for an invetor to finance till we conclude.(Lewis Altman) made a numbered-time (fixed deposit) for twelve calendar month valued at (£1.2) One MILLION Two HUNDRED THOUSAND UK POUND STERLING,Upon maturity I sent a routine notification of Account status to his forwarding address but got no reply. After two months, we sent a reminder of same letter, and finally we discovered from his contact employers, Halliburton Oil Services Company that Engineer.Lewis Altman died in auto crash.
  
After further investigation, I found out that he did not leave a WILL and all attempts to trace his next of kin were fruitless. I therefore made further investigation and discovered that he did not declare any next of kin in all his official documents, including his Bank deposit papers. This sum of £1.2m is still floating in our Bank and the interest is being rolled over with the principal sum at the end of each year.
  
Note that it does not necessarily matter, whether you are biologically related to the deceased or not. As you may bear with me, a next of kin maybe a parent, sister, brother, close relative, business associate, friend or even a well-wisher.  therefore,whether you are related to him or not is never a barrier to realizing the transaction.The important thing is that I have every detailed information regarding the said account (investment) and the deceased also.
Note, that every arrangement has been put in place for a smooth and successful transaction.On receipt of your positive response, I will give you full details and information on this transaction.
  
Please indicate your willingness to proceed in this project and send me your full name and address,telephone/fax numbers to facilitate communication.Please indicate your intrest so that we can commence
Waiting to hear from you.
  
Thanks,
  
James Clerk


Play games, earn tickets, get cool prizes. Play now–it's FREE!

Anti-fraud resources: