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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: "sylvalin jack" <sylvalinj7@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 18:12:13 +0000
Subject: From: Mrs Sylvalin Jack


From: Mrs Sylvalin Jack
Standard Chartered Bank
Koforidua Branch
Tel +233249102291

My Good Friend,

My name is Mrs Sylvalin Jack, I am the regional manager of Standard
Chartered Bank Koforidua branch Ghana. I got your information
on a recent environmental conference held in Lome the capital city of Togo
with other West African countries. I write you
this proposal in good faith, I am 42 years old married with two lovely
kids.

I have packaged a financial transaction that will benefit you and I, as the
regional manager of the Standard Chartered Bank
it is my duty to send in a financial report to my head office in the capital
city Accra at the end of each business year. On
the course of the last year 2007 business report, I discovered that my
branch in which I am the manager made Five million
seven hundred and twenty thousand united state dollars($5,720,000.00) which
my head office are not aware of and will never be
aware of. I have placed this funds on what we call escrow call account with
no beneficiary. As an officer of this bank I
cannot be directly connected to this money, so my aim of contacting you is
to assist me receive this money in your bank
account and get 30% of the total funds as commission.

There are practically no risks involved, it will be a bank to bank transfer,
and all I need from you is to stand claim as the
original depositor of these funds who made the deposit with my branch so
that my head office can order the transfer to your
designated bank account.If you accept to work with me I will appreciate it
very much. My private phone number is above, call
me if you think we can work together so that we can go over the details.
Thank you in advance and May god bless you and your
family.

Yours truly,
Mrs Sylvalin Jack

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