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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: "gracewilliams36 Gazeta.pl" <gracewilliams36@gazeta.pl>
Date: Tue, 1 Jul 2008 19:45:52 +0200
Subject: How are you?


Attention : Dearest,

I make this appeal with the understanding that any facts or opinion
expressed by me are giving in confidence and solely for your personal
information and use.

I am Mrs. Grace Williams, the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign
remittance department of my Bank. In my department I discovered an abandoned
sum of (Eight Million, Five Hundred Thousand US Dollars) with account
number 0101-001-73914682-28 that belongs to one of our foreign customers who
died along with his wife and only daughter in a plane crash of Alaska
Airlines Flight number 261 which crashed on 31 January, 2000. You shall read
more about the crash on visiting this site
http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02 /01/alaska.airlines.list/ the owner of this
account is Mr. Morris Thompson an American and great industrialist and a
resident of Alaska.

It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this business
proposal to you and for our bank to release the money to you. You have to
follow the instruction which I will send to you as the next of kin or
relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody
is coming for it and I don't want this money to go into our bank treasury as
unclaimed bill.

The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that if such money remained
unclaimed after Three years, the money will be transferred into the bank
treasury as unclaimed fund. The money has now stayed more than three years
and I am preparing documentation to prove that this money has been
transferred to our bank treasury. It will be between me and you only that
will know that the money is not transferred into our treasure. The request
of foreigner as next of kin in this transaction is occasioned by the fact
that the customer was a foreigner and a Senegalese cannot stand as next of
kin to a foreigner.

In appreciation of your assistance, I am offering you 35 percent of the
total sum. 5percent for contingencies cost of transfer/other charges likely
to be incurred during the course of transaction, while the remaining
60percent is for me.

Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email the text of
the application which you will complete and forward to our bank asking for
this money to be paid to you as the next of kin to Mr. Morris Thomson. I
will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch-free
and that you should not entertain any fear as all required arrangements have
been made for the transfer.
You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive this mail through
the above email or with this grcwilliams@axigenmail.com

Please do not hesitate to contact me immediately should you consider my
urgent request.


Yours Faithfully,
Dr. Mrs. Grace Williams.

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