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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "william woods" <william.woods7@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2008 10:57:29 +0530
Subject: A PROPOSAL


*From The Desk Of Mr.William Woods
Senior Staff, File Department,
HSBC Bank London *
*Private Tel: +447024063556*
*United Kingdom
*

*Attn: Dear friend*
* *
*I am Mr.Steven Johnson a senior staff in file department in Hsbc Bank. I
got your contact from the internet people Search.

In my department I discovered an abandoned sum of $ 10 million U.S.A dollars
(Ten million U.S dollars). In an account that belongs to one of our foreign
customer who died along with his entire family in (Friday December 26, 2003)
in a plane crash.

Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of
kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless
somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as
indicated in our banking guidelines,

But unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next of kin or relation
died alongside with him at the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the
claim. It is therefore upon this discovery that I have now decided here in
my department to make this business proposal to you so that the bank will
release the money to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for
safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and we
don't want this money to go into the bank treasury as unclaimed bill.

The Banking law and guideline here stipulates that if such money remained
unclaimed after five years, the money will be transferred into the Bank
treasury as unclaimed fund. The request of foreigner as next of kin in this
business is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner,

I agree that 30 % of this money will be for you as foreign partner, in
respect to the provision of a foreign account, while 10 % will be set aside
for expenses incurred during the business and 60 % would be for me and my
family. There after I and my family will visit your country for disbursement
according to the percentages indicated.

Therefore to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you as arranged,
you must apply first to the bank as relations or next of kin of the deceased
indicating your bank name, your bank account number, your private telephone
and fax number for easy and effective communication and location where the
money will be remitted.

Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email the text of
the application and I will not fail to bring to your notice that this
transaction is hitch free and that you should not have any kind of fear as
all required arrangements have been made for the transfer.
You can go through the site for confirmation
Pls contact me immediately you receive this proposal for more details about
the transfer.

Trusting to hear from you immediately.
*
*Mr. WILLIAM WOODS*

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