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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: "Mr. Jim Mark" <mrjimmark000006@msn.com>
Reply-To: <mr.jimmark52@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:52:09 +0000
Subject: From: Mr.Jim Mark



From: Mr.Jim MarkDept.Of Offshore Mortgage Services,Bank Of Scotland Int'l Ltd, P.O.Box.19,Bank Of Scotland House, Prospect Hill,Douglas, Isle Of Man. IM99 1AT. www.bankofscotland.co.uk . How are you today? Hope all is well with you and your family,I know that this massage will come to you as a surprise as we don't know ourselves before,But be sure that it is real and genuine business. I am an external auditor of a well known Bank{www.bankofscotland.co.uk} here in the United kingdom. In one of our periodic auditing I discovered a dormant accounts with holding balance of 22,759,000.00(TWENTY TWO MILLION SEVEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY NINE THOUSAND POUNDS STERLINGS) which has not been operated for the past three years noun. From my investigations and confirmations, the owner of this account,is a foreigner by name Engr. Robert J.Gerlich is a United State Of America,Monroe, Conn.citizen who transpired around 10th September 2001,Four days later,information started to trickle in,that he was among victims of the 9/11 World Trade Center attack.(www.boston.com/news/packages/sept11/anniversary/victims/wtc3.htm) and since then nobody has done anything as regards the claiming of this money because he has no family members who are aware of the existence of neither the account nor the funds. I WANT TO TRANSFER THIS MONEY INTO A SAFE FOREIGN ACCOUNT ABROAD BUT I DON'T KNOW ANY FOREIGNER WHOM I CAN TRUST I have secretly discussed this matter with a top senior minister official of the federal ministry of finance here and we have agreed to find a reliable foreign partner to deal with us, although due to his position he did not want to take active part but as soon as you follow my instructions everything will be successful because we will be working hand in hand with him.We thus propose to do this business with you,standing in as the next of kin of these funds from the deceased and after due legal processes have been followed the fund will be released to your account without delay and we will use it for investment and to assist the less privileged in the society because if we left the fund with the government it will be fortified for nothing and will be used to suppress the poor masses in the society.
Your assistance as a foreigner is necessary because the management of the bank will welcome any foreigner who has correct information to this account which I will give to you immediately, I am only contacting you as a foreigner because this money cannot be approved to a local person here due to law in United Kingdom.You can either provide us with an existing account or to set up a new Bank account immediately to receive this money, even an empty a/c can serve to receive this money, as long as you will remain honest to me till the end of this important business, trusting in you and believing in God that you will never let me down in future because this business is my life.
If you are interested, please forward the following information as below:
(1} Your Name/company's name and full address, {2} Bank Name:............ ..........{3} Bank Address.....................{4} Account No:......................{5} Swift Code...{if any}{6} Account Holder's Name: ....................{7} Your telephone Number.both Home, Office &Cell/Mobile and fax Numbers.........................{8} Your Occupation..............{9} Your Valid ID ...................
Upon the receipt of the above details, payment will be activated by the feeding of your data into payment system, followed by a signal that will be sent to the paying bank to remit the funds into your nominated bank account within 7 official working days of receipt of the above information.
Best Regards,Mr.Jim Mark.

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