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: john barns <johnbarns88900101@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <johnbarns12@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 10:16:44 +0000
Subject: Dear. Friend,



Dear. Friend, I am Mr. john barns, the manager in the department of accounts division, standard trust bank, marina branch Lagos Nigeria. On December 30th 2002, one of our high profile patrons Mr. Martins camp, made a numbered time (fixed) deposit, for twelve calendar months in my bank branch. Upon maturity, we sent a routine notification to his forwarding address but got no reply. after a month, we sent a reminder and finally we discovered from his contract employers he was aboard the, Boeing 727 Beirut-bound charter jet which crashed on takeoff on December 26th 2003, see the below link for read more news about the air crash: www.cnn.com/2003/world/africa/12/26/benin.crash/ after further inquest, it was discovered that he died without making a will and all attempts to trace his next of kin proved futile. On further inquisition, it was discovered that late Mr. martins did not declare any next of kin or relations in all his official documents, including his bank deposit paperwork here at the bank. The total sum is usd15.5m still in my bank and the interest is being rolled over with the principal sum at the end of each year. no one will ever come forward to claim it. In accord with the federal banking laws and constitution, the money will revert to the ownership of the government if nobody applies as the next of kin to claim the funds. Consequently, I shall present you as a foreigner to stand in, as the next of kin to this gentleman, since you have same last name with the deceased, so that the proceeds of this account can be paid to you, for us to share. Upon acceptance of this proposal, I shall give you detailed information on how this deal would be carried out. We shall employ the services of an advocate for the drafting of the letter of probate in your favor, and to obtain all other relevant papers in your name for the necessary documentation for payment endorsement in my bank. The money will be shared in the ratio: fifty percent for me, forty five percent for you and five percent for any arising contingencies during the course of this transaction. I guarantee that this will be executed under legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law or any legal plight, as I will use my position in the bank to secure approvals and guarantee the successful execution of this transaction. Please be informed that your extreme discretion is required. If this interests you, please reply me directly by email and indicate your full name, address date of birth, your contact telephone and fax numbers respectively. Upon receipt of your response, i will prepare a text of application you will send to my bank headquarters for payment approval in your favor. I await your urgent reply. Best regards, Mr. John barns.
_________________________________________________________________
Invite your mail contacts to join your friends list with Windows Live Spaces. It's easy!
http://spaces.live.com/spacesapi.aspx?wx_action=create&wx_url=/friends.aspx&mkt=en-us

Anti-fraud resources: