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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: greg fox <gg.fox01@msn.com>
Reply-To: <gre2fox@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2008 04:14:13 +0000
Subject: Re: Mr. Greg Fox



CONTACT ME AT MY PRIVATE EMAIL: <GRE2FOX@HOTMAIL.COM> .Greeting!Warmest greetings to you, I know this letter will definitely comes to you as a surprise am Mr. Greg Fox, the Auditor General in UBS Investment Bank in London.During the course of our auditing I discovered a floating fund in an account opened in the bank in 1999 and since 2004 nobody has operated on this account again. After going through some old files in the records, I discovered that the owner of the account died without a [heir] hence the money is floating and if this funds is not remit out urgently it will be forfeited for nothing.The owner of this account is Mr. Jacob Majeed, a foreigner. I want to solicit your assistance to help me receive the sum of £15.7million, in the floating account. doing this you will have to be capable and fit to provide either an existing account or set up a new account that can serve to receive this money, even an empty a/c could also serve as long as you will remain honest to me till the end of this important business trusting you and believing that you will never let me down either now or in future.The investigation during my auditing of the account proved to me that Mr. Jacob Majeed, until his death was an oil consultant. Where He made millions of GBP before he died mysteriously. Since his death in 2004 no other person knows about this account or any thing concerning it and has no other beneficiary.I am only contacting you as a foreigner because Mr. Jacob Majeed has his record with the bank as a foreigner and so the beneficiary must be a foreigner.This money cannot be approved to a local person here without a valid foreign international passport, drivers license and foreign a/c, I need your full co-operation to make this work fine because the management of the bank is ready to approve this payment to you the foreigner who has correct information of this account, which I will give to you, upon your positive response and once I am convinced that you are capable and will meet up with instruction we can proceed immediately.Please I need your strong assurance in this transaction. Therefore if you are interested do reply urgently Through This Email Only gre2fox@hotmail.com so that I will inform you the next step to take. With my influence and position in the bank this funds will be transferred to your designated bank account which you shall provide with assurance that this money will be intact pending my physical arrival in your country for sharing.At the conclusion of this business, you will be given 35% of the total amount,60% will be for me while 5% will be for expenses both parties would have incurred during the process of transferring the funds.Sincerely,Greg FoxAuditor Gen,UBS Investment BankLondon.

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