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: "william thabo" <williamthabo8@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 16 May 2008 02:00:02 -0700
Subject: FROM WILLIAM


Good Day,

Although, I do not know you in person, I got your contact via personal
search on
the internet, Let me start by introducing myself. I am Mr. William Thabo a
banker in the ABSA Bank Ltd, South Africa. I have a profitable transaction
for
you. I was attending a business luncheon in September 1999 in china and I
was
introduced to Mr. Andreas Schranner, a renowned German Real Estate/Property
magnate.

He later employed my services as a banker and investment Consultant, Three
months later he invited me and told me of his desire to open a fixed deposit
account, he could fall back to on retirement, under my professional guidance
and
based on my advice he made a fixed deposit of USD25,500,000(Twenty Five
Million
Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) in one of our branches.

This deposit was for 5 years and upon maturity I made effort to contact my
client, l could not reach him. I was forced to travel to Germany and there I
got
the tragic news that, my client Mr. Andreas Schranner, his wife Maria, their
daughter Andrea Eich, his son in law Christian, and their children
Maximilian
and Katharina, all perished in the Monday, 31 July, 2000 plane crash in
western
German city of Moenchengladbach.

Please Click here and find out what happened to the Mr. Andreas Schranner :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm

After further investigation, l also discovered that Mr. Andreas Schranner
did
not declare any next of kin in his official papers including the paper work
of
his bank deposit. And l remember he also confided in me the last time he was
at
my office that no one except me knew of his deposit in my bank. So, Twenty
Five
Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars is still lying in my
bank
and no one will ever come forward to claim it. What bothers me most is that
according to the laws of my country at the expiration of a numbers of years
the
funds will revert to the ownership of the South African Government as
unclaimed
funds if nobody applies to claim the funds.

Against this backdrop, my suggestion to you is that I will like you as a
foreigner to stand as the next of kin to Mr. Andreas Schranner so that you
will
be able to receive his funds. Should you be interested please send me your
full
names and Direct Telephone and Fax Numbers, and I will prefer you to reply
me on
the email address below:

Email: will_thabo07@yahoo.com.hk then I shall provide you with more details
of
this Transaction.

Please also note that I am willing to give you 25% of the total money for
your
assistance.

Your earliest response to this proposal will be appreciated.

Be well and God Bless.

Best Regards,
Mr. William Thabo

Anti-fraud resources: