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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: (sent from abused email account)
Date: Sat, 11 Oct 2008 12:25:44 -1200
Subject: FROM DR.JOHNSON KELLOG.

Dear,

I apologize if the contents hereunder are contrary to your
moral ethics, but please treat it with absolute secrecy and
personal courtesy. I am Johnson Kellog, an Auditor in a
commercial Bank here in England, in the process of auditing
our bank accounts this quarter, I and one of my colleagues
recently discovered that there is a dormant account valued
at the sum of $10,000,000.00 (Ten million united states
Dollars) and after due verification of this account we
discovered that the account owner is late and that is why
the account has been dormant and as such a $10,000,000.00
has been lying in the bank unclaimed.

The idea of presenting a foreigner to act as his next of kin
came into our mind as you know the said deceased is a
foreigner as well. Hence, that is how and why we have
contacted you to present you as his next of kin, so that the
$10,000.000.00 will be paid to you and we can both disburse
the fund according to the percentage we will agree upon.

In view of this, I am seeking for your co-operation and
understanding to stand as the next of kin to our deceased
customer, to enable us claim the fund from my bank.

Hence, If this proposal is OK by you and you do not wish to
take undue advantage of my trust, then I hope to bestow on
you. Please kindly get back to me immediately, strictly via
my private email address only to enable me enlighten you on
how we are to proceed.

On getting your response, we shall agree on the percentage
ratio on which we shall disburse the $10,000,000.00 between
us, as we intend to invest part of our own share in real
estate or any lucrative business in your country, and we
would appreciate if you can put us in the right part where
we can invest our own share in your country.

I will not contact any person or company until I hear from
you, so as to enable me decide on what to do next.

Be rest assured that this business is 100% risk free.

We await for your prompt response.

Best Regards,
Dr.Johnson Kellog.

NB: PLEASE NOTE THAT IT DOES NOT MATTER IF YOU ARE NOT
RELATED TO MY LATE CUSTOMER; THE FUND WILL STILL BE PAID TO
YOU, SINCE WE ARE PRESENTING YOU AS HIS NEXT OF KIN.

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