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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: "Dr. James Hord" <urgentassistance09@msn.com>
Reply-To: <james.privateconsult@googlemail.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2008 22:13:30 +0000
Subject: I NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE



From The Desk of The Auditor General:International Fund Remittance, Foreign Operation Dept.Ref: ILP/HW 47509/02/IRDBatch: 8056490902/188/IRDDate: 25th June 2008. Hello Mr/Mrs, My name is Dr. James Hord and I work with a Prime Bank here in Malaysia. We had a customer, who is a renowned business man and real estate magnete, he had a deposit of £9.3,000,000.00GBP (Nine Million, Three Hundred Thousand Pounds Sterling) here in our bank before he died in a plane crash with his wife and their only Child about 4years now (January 30, 2005) and since he died, we in the Bank here have been expecting his/her next of kin/relative(s) for the inheritance of the deposit, but none has surfaced ever since. The Bank policy however stipulates a limited time period for such inheritance to be claimed or the funds will be written off going by the record of the incident, the time limit for the claim is closing up Soon for the next of kin to show up or the account will be confiscated. Meanwhile i came to have the knowledge of this account as the auditor of the bank, i happened to come across this file when i was going through the records. In this consideration, I am contacting you to seek your kind understanding and sincere co-operation to claim this inheritance for our mutual benefit in view of the fact that you are a Foreigner. If you can stand as the next of kin in this project, success is assured because I am in possession of the personal file jacket of the deceased which contains every needed information about the deceased account, you and I stands no risk of any kind because I have all the documents to support you in claiming the inheritance. The proceedings of the transaction will be shared 60% for me and 40% for you after expenses are reimbursed. Kindly indicate your willingness and we shall proceed with the initial step for the claim. The entire project is expected to last for about ten working days. Hope to hear from you soonest showing your interest and willingness. Yours Faithfully,Dr. James Hord. james.privateconsult@googlemail.com

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