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: "Segun Williams" <barrisegunchambers08@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2008 12:25:47 +0100
Subject: ATTENTION YOUR INDULGENCE NEEDED


Barrister Segun Williams.
Legal Practitioner, Solicitor & Notaries
&Property & Civil Law
33 Bode Thomas Street, Surulere, Lagos.


Regarding You,

My name is Barrister Segun Williams, a legal attorney with great
vision, I apologize for the unsolicited nature of my email, and this
is due
to the desperation in me.

I bring you good news to you about my late client,a native of your country
and fortunately share the same last name with
you. He died in the January 27th Bomb blast here in my country,
Nigeria,
I happen to be his private and most trusted attorney.

However, my client was a wealthy business tycoon formerly working with
the Nigerian airways for over 20 years till date before his sudden
death in the January 27th 2002 Bomb blast that rocked his residence in
Steven Toba street, G.R.A Ikeja, here in my country.

On the 27th of January 2002, my client
and his family here in Nigeria {Lady lydia, Sharon, Charles and
Christiana} were involved in a terrible bomb blast that took the lives
of
innocent souls and unfortunately over 1000 people lost their lives, my
client and his family were part of these people. In view of this,
please
view the web page below
<<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2698081.stm>>, my client
left
behind a sum fifteen million eight thousand {US$15.8 M } United States
of American dollars precisely here in the First Bank of Nigeria Plc
which is the main is the reason why I have contacted you.

I have made so many attempts to locate any of my clients relative
but
all attempts have proved unsuccessful for over 4 years now, since I
have been unsuccessful in locating any living relative of my client, I
seek your consent to present you as the next of kin of the deceased
because you bare the same sur-name with him so that the proceeds of
his
account valued at {USD15.8M} dollars can be transferred into your
account
and then you and I can share the money according to any agreed ratio
as
this fund is almost maturing to confiscation.

All I require is your honest co-operation to enable us seeing this deal
through, I guarantee that this will be executed under legitimate
arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law in your
country
and here as well. Please enclose your other names and yaour phone
numbers in your response and be rest assured that as you comply with
my
directives, this transaction will be backed up with official documents
endorsed by the supreme court of Nigeria to legalize the claim of this
transaction.

Finally , I crave your indulgence to present you as the surviving next
of kin to the deceased so that we can reap from the fruit of this old
man's labor before some group of bad and corrupt leaders in my country
get hold of this money for their own selfish interest instead of
either
donating it to the less privilege or have the fund go its legal way, I
guess the best way is for the both of us to take advantage of this
opportunity for the betterment of our lives and the lives of those
around
us including the homeless and less privileged ones.

I hope to get a positive response and maximum support from you

Segun

Anti-fraud resources: