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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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Mr. Joel Williams" <willyjoel08@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: joelwilliams07@voila.fr
Date: Sat, 12 Apr 2008 08:31:30 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: FROM: Mr. Joel Williams


FROM: Mr. Joel Williams
BANQUE INTERNATIONALE DU BENIN.
RUE CLUB DE L' AMITIE,
0251 B.P. 1365 COTONOU,
BéNIN REPUBLIQUE.

My Dear Friend,

In Oder to transfer to overseas $28.5 million(USD) from BANQUE INTERNATIONALE DU BENIN,Bénin Republique.
I want to ask you to quietly look for a reliable and honest person who will be capable and fit to provide either an existing bank account or to set up a new Bank a/c immediately to receive this money, even an empty a/c can serve to receive this funds quitely.

I am Mr. Joel Williams, the accountant/auditor of the above Finance Corporation in Cotonou,Bénin Republique and personal confidant to Mr. Pierre Mendez of Dominican Republic in Caribbean Island who died in a Plane Crash accident(2002-04-19) on his way to attend a weddind ceremony to gether with his wife and only Child (Pi erre Jr).
Mr. Pierre Mendez, is From Dominican Republic in Caribbean Island, and a prosperous Tobacco merchant, he died in the year 2002 without having any beneficiary to his assets including his account here in Bénin which he opened in the above stated bank in the year 2001 as his personal savings for the purpose of expansion and developement of his
company in Africa before his untimely death in 2002.Until his death,he was the president of the Dominican Tobacco Exporters Association.

And from my Investigation,i found out that No other person knows about this account because he(Mr.Luis Mendez)never knew that he is going to die so soon, and so his purpose was not achieved. If i don't remit this money immediately, it will get lost(may be it will go into the pockets of the corrupt government officials who wi ll never use it for any reasonable thing at all).I dont want to miss this opportunity because it comes ones in a life t ime.

The amount involved is $28.5 million(USD)Twenty eight million,five hundred United States Dollars and no other person knows about this account. I am contacting you for us to transfer this funds to your account as the beneficiary,I want to first transfer $16,000.000..00(Sixteen million USD) from this money into a safe account abroad, after which we will transfer the remaining (12.5M). I am only contacting you as a foreigner because this money cannot be
approved to a local person here, without a valid foreign international passport, but can only be approved to any foreigner with valid international passport or drivers license and foreign a/c, this is because the money is in US Dollars and the former owner of the a/c, Mr. Pierre Mendez is a foreigner too,and as such the money can only be approved into a foreign a/c.
However, I am revealing this to you with belief in God that you will never let me down in this business.I don 't know you and have never seen you before,i only got y our contacts from an international directory which my secretary provided for me. You are the first and the only person that I am contacting for this business, so please reply urgently so that I will inform you the next step to take. Send also your private telephone and fax number.

I need your full co-operation to make this work because the management is ready to approve this payment to any foreigner who has correct information of this account,which I will give to you, upon your positive response and once I am convinced that you are capable and will meet up with instruction of a keybank official who is deeply involved with me in this business.

I want to tell you that this transaction is 100% risk free and legal because all the documents that will back up this transaction will be available, so that no body will question the fund when it is finaly tranfered to your account.

At the conclusion of this business, you will be given 40% of the total amount and 60% will be for me. I look forward to your earliest reply through this email.

Thanks for your time.

Your's faithfully,
Mr. Joel Williams
Tel: +229 977-670-10

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