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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: McGowan Peters <mcgow.pt04@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <petersmcgowan@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:54:40 +0100
Subject: From Barrister McGowan [your honest co-operation]






Attn: Hello Dear, You
identity and contact was made known to me in my desperate quest to
successfully locate the next of kin to an account file forwarded to
mine desk for liquidation.I am Barrister McGowan, I work with the legal
department of the NATWEST Bank in London. It is my job to see that any
unclaimed account resulting from demise of account holder is certified
and confirmed? UNCLAIMED? before final liquidation instruction is
passed on any such account file. With
the above explanation of my responsibility/obligation in carrying out
my duty, I was necessitated to making contact with you because an
account file due for liquidation and currently valued at US$ 5.3
Million (Five million, three hundred Thousand US Dollars) was forwarded
to my office for final search of next of kin to the deceased account
holder, this account was last operated in April 2003. I
have tried to locate the next of kin to this account but to no avail. I
have tried the embassies, still no results. In my quest to locate such
person, i came across your identity. Coincidentally you bear the same
surname as the holder of the account in question and that is the major
reason for my contact with you.I have been mandated to provide next of
kin to this account or have the account confiscated within thirty
official working days from the 22nd of Dec, 2007. Therefore I seize this opportunity to make a confidential transaction proposal to you as follows: - 1.
We both work together on this file, I will use my official capacity to
front you as the next of kin to this account file. All files relating
to this account will be amended to suit our plight. 2.
I will be your lawyer here in London UK, who will be standing in on
your behalf while the claim suit is going on. I will be directing the
affairs of the claim suit from behind the scene. 3.
Once claim of account approval by virtue of next of kin is passed in
favor of us.[you] We shall have the proceeds of the account
shared/disbursed as follows:- {i} 80% to be shared equally (40:40) between both parties (you and me) {ii}
20% will be set aside for expenses incurred in the course of execution
of the transaction afterwards.We might have to indulge in a bit of
lobbying to scale through a few bureaucratic bottleneck procedures and
to gain claim and transfer approval quickly. All
I require is your honest co-operation to enable us seeing this deal
through. I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate
arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the Law. Upon your
critical scrutiny of the above mentioned proposal and 3 point
operational module.I expect to hear from you as soon as possible! Sincerely,Barrister McGowan,Qc.
_________________________________________________________________
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