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: james anderson <james000001@msn.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2009 13:24:59 +0000
Subject: GOOD NEWS



Attn:
Hello Dear ,
Your identity and contact was made known to me in my desperate quest to successfully locate the next of kin to an account file forwarded to mine desk for liquidation.I am JAMES ANDERSON, I work with the legal department of the FIRST GULF BANK DUBAI. It is my job to see that any unclaimed account resulting from demise of account holder is certified and confirmed? UNCLAIMED? before final liquidation instruction is passed on any such account file.
With the above explanation of my responsibility/obligation in carrying out my duty, I was necessitated to making contact with you because an account file due for liquidation and currently valued at US$ 10.3 Million (Ten million, three hundred Thousand US Dollars) was forwarded to my office for final search of next of kin to the deceased account holder, this account was last operated in April 2003.I have tried to locate the next of kin to this account but to no avail. I have tried the embassies, still no results. In my quest to locate such person, i came across your identity. Coincidentally you bear the same surname as the holder of the account in question and that is the major reason for my contact with you.I have been mandated to provide next of kin to this account or have the account confiscated within thirty official working days from the 22nd of JUNE, 2009.Therefore I seize this opportunity to make a confidential transaction proposal to you as follows: -
1. We both work together on this file, I will use my official capacity to front you as the next of kin to this account file. All files relating to this account will be amended to suit our plight.
2. I will provide you an attorney, who will be standing in on your behalf while the claim suit is going on. I will be directing the affairs of the claim suit from behind the scene.
3. Once claim of account approval by virtue of next of kin is passed in favor of us.[you] We shall have the proceeds of the account shared/disbursed as follows:-
{i} 80% to be shared equally (40:40) between both parties (you and me)
{ii} 20% will be set aside for expenses incurred in the course of
execution of the transaction afterwards.We might have to indulge in a bit of lobbying to scale through a few bureaucratic bottleneck procedures and to gain claim and transfer approval
quickly.All I require is your honest co-operation to enable us seeing this deal through. I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the Law. Upon your critical scrutiny of the above mentioned
proposal and 3 point operational module.
I expect to hear from you as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
James Anderson

Anti-fraud resources: