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: Frank Riggs <riggsdesk1@msn.com>
Reply-To: <frankriggsprivate@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Sun, 21 Sep 2008 02:16:28 +0000
Subject: Proposal



Hello,

My name is Mr.Frank Riggs and I work with a Commercial Bank here in Malaysia. We had a customer and business tycoon by name Badri Patarkatsishvili, who had a deposit of 4,200,000.00 (Four Million ,Three Hundred thousand Pound Sterlings GBP) before he died of Heart attack 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 and the account has been tagged for dormancy.

The policy of the Bank however stipulates a limited time period for such inheritance to be made or the fund 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 closed and i came to have the knowledge of this account as the auditor in the bank.I happen to come across this file when i was going through the records.

In this consideration, I am contacting you to seek for 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 stand no risk of any kind because I have enough information 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 Fathifully,
Mr. Frank Riggs


Anti-fraud resources: