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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: "Joan Freeman" <joanfreeman@mail.vu>
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 19:37:47 -1000
Subject: Good day to you !!

Dear Friend,
My name is Mr. Joan Freeman , I am a senior banker in a bank here in the
Madrid Spain.
I am contacting you for a business transfer, of a huge sum of money from a
deceased account. Though I know that a transaction of this magnitude will
make any one apprehensive and worried, but I am assuring you that everything
documents that will bring about the success of this transaction would be
provided, and all will be well at the end of the day. I decided to contact
you due to the urgency of this transaction.
The deceased person Neal Walker died in an air crash along with his wife on
the 31st October 1999 in an Egyptian airline 990 with other passengers on
board was an American Oil consultant/contractor with the Chinese Solid
Minerals Corporation. You can confirm his death from the website below which
was published by BBC WORLD NEWS. WEBSITE.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/502503.stm
Since his death, none of his next-of-kin are alive to make claims for this
money as his heir, because they all died in the same accident himself and
his wife (May their soul rest in peace). 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.
Upon this discovery, I now seek your permission to have you stand as a next
of kin to the deceased, as all documentations will be carefully changed to
make you as the beneficiary to the funds #16,150 000 00 US Dollar (Sixteen
million, one hundred and fifty thousand United State Dollar) which will be
released in your favour as the next of kin. Because after few months now
the money will be called back to the bank treasury as unclaimed bills and
the funds will be confiscated by the government because of the new monetary
policies regarding unclaimed funds. However, this make me decide to seek
for whom his/her name shall be used as the next of kin/beneficiary to this
funds rather than the government to confiscate the funds at the end of the
year.
It may interest you to know that we have secured from the probate an order
of mandamus to locate any of the deceased beneficiaries. Please acknowledge
receipt of this message in acceptance of our mutual business endeavour by
furnishing me with the following information if you are interested.
1. Full names and address,
2. Telephone Number.
For our personal contact and mutual trust in each other. I shall be
compensating you with 40% of the above amount on final conclusion of this
project for your assistance. If this proposal is acceptable by you, please
endeavour to contact me immediately and if you know that I intrude into your
privacy kindly delete this mail. I await your urgent response.
Best Regards,
Mr. Joan Freeman






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