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: "Mr. Hank Smith" <mrhsmith23@googlemail.com>
Reply-To: hanksmith044@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 04:21:39 -0700
Subject: From Mr. Hank Smith


*Dear Friend,*
**
*My name is Mr. Hank Smith from Harlsden, North West London , here in
England. I work with CITIBANK INTERNATIONAL PLC. LONDON BRANCH. *
*I am writing you from my office that will be of an imense benefit to both
of us. In my department,being the auditing manager, I discovered an
abandoned sum of $16.5 million USA Dollars (Sixteen million five
hundred thousand Usa Dollars) in an account that belongs to one of our
foreign customer Late Mr. Denis Cook an American citizen who
unfortunately lost his life in the era of Osama Bin Laden Bombing of
World Trade centre on the 11th of september 2001 together with his
wife and only daughter,*
**
*The choice o f contacting you is aroused from the geograpgical nature
of where you live, particularly due to the sensivity of the
transaction.and the confidentiality herein. Now our bank has been
waiting for any of the relatives to come-up for the claim but nobody
has done that.I personally has been unsuccessful in locating the
relatives for 2 years now, I seek your consent to present you as the
next of kin /Will Beneficiary to the deceased so that the proceeds of
this account valued at 16.5 Million Dollars can be paid to you.*
**
*This will be disbursed or shared in these percentages,50% to me, 40%
to you and 10% for any expenses incure by both of us. I have secured
all necessary legal documents that can be used to back up this claim
we are making. All i need is to fill in your names to the ducuments
and legalise it in the court here to prove you as the legitimate
beneficiary. All I require now is your honesty,Co-operation,Confidentiality
and Trust to enable us see this transaction through. I guarantee you that
this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you
from any breach of the law.*
**
*Please,provide me the following: as we have 5 days to run it through.
this is very very URGENT PLEASE.*
**
*1. Full Name
2. Your Telephone Number
3. Your Contact Address.*
**
*Having gone through a methodical search, I decided to contact you
hoping that you will find this proposal interesting. Please on your
confirmation of this message and indicating your interest will furnish
you with more information. Endeavor to let me know your decision
rather than to keep me waiting.*
**
*Awaiting your urgent response.*
**
*Regards,
Mr. Hank Smith*

Anti-fraud resources: