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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: "Neil Hooper" <neilhooper1960@aol.com>
Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2007 03:52:54 +0530 (IST)
Subject: I need your consent

Hello,

It is with pleasure and honour that I am bringing this information to you
and I hope you will not misconstrue my position. I would not be surprise if
you doubt what I am about to tell you considering the tales emanating from
the Internet these days. I will greatly appreciate if you spare two minutes
of your time and go through this email carefully. Can you recollect having
any relation called Robert who shares the SAME LAST NAME (SURNAME) WITH YOU?
He used to work with Sacyr-Vallehermoso SA in Madrid, Spain. His wife and
their three children were killed in the terrorist blast in Madrid, Spain in
March, 2004, more detail in link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3503184.stm

My name is Mr. Neil Hooper, the former credit officer of one of the leading
British Finance Organization (name will be disclosed to you in due course).
The late Mr. Robert was a client of mine. On Friday 5 March 2004, he made a
fixed deposit for 12 calendar months, with a value of Nine Million Eight
Hundred Thousand United States Dollars Only, in my branch. He also deposited
a box containing some gold jewellery which he claimed were family assets. We
could not complete the documentation and paper work for the deposit because
it was already late on that Friday and as a good client, promised to return
in three days time which was the following Monday to complete the
transaction and finalize terms with us. He flew to Spain that night. It was
later we heard that he was caught up in the Madrid terrorist blast. He died
with his family members without completing the scheduled paper work to prove
that he has deposited such amount of money with my organization. Since then,
my organization has made efforts to locate his next of kin without success
and has given up. My appointment has been terminated due to my ill health. I
have been bed ridden for the past three months due to my failing health.
News reaching me has it that the bank has lost patience with waiting for the
next of kin and are about to invoke the abandoned property acts of 1891 to
confiscate the funds after the expiration of the mandatory period which will
soon come to pass.

I am making this contact to you as either a relative or an individual with
whom I can work with to get these funds out and establish a long lasting
business relationship with. Since I have been unsuccessful in locating any
of his relatives for over (11) months, I am seeking your consent to submit
your name as the next of kin to the deceased so that the deposited funds can
be transferred to you, we will then share it between the two of us. The
advantage in using you as the next of kin is very clear; Mr. Robert shares
the same Family name with you.

I will give you all the information with which you are to make the
application for the funds. The bank will certainly accept your application
as the next of kin and make payment to you as long as you submit the
documents that I will make available to you. My primary aim is to stop these
evil Bank Directors from getting the deposit for themselves.

I was a branch manager, I still have my insiders working in my branch,
getting up-to-date information on this venture would not be a problem to us.
I need your honest cooperation, trust and assurance that you will not cheat
me out of the deposit when payment is made to you. The procedures involve
are 100% risk free, we are not breaking the law. It will be executed under a
legitimate arrangement that will protect you and me. Be Inform, that we
shall share the funds in the ratio 60% for me and 35% for you, while 5%
should be for expenses (Your telephone, internet connection fee and Tax as I
understand you may need to pay taxes on the funds when it gets to your country).

Please endeavour to observe utmost discretion in all matters concerning this
issue. I will disclose more information to you as soon as you respond to my
mail.

Kind regards,

Neil Hooper


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