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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: "Matthew Spencer Esq"<matthewspencer@lawfirm.org>
Reply-To: <matthewspencer09@sify.com |>
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:28:23 -0700
Subject: *****SPAM***** Good Day,Reply Urgently.

From The Desk of MATTHEW SPENCER Esq
SPENCER'S CHAMBERS & SOLICITORS
 
 
 
My Dear Friend,
 
Before proceeding, I wish to introduce myself to you, I am Barrister Matthew Spencer. An attorney I am pleased to get across to you for a very urgent and profitable business proposal which I believe will profit the both of us after completion. I contacted you after a careful thought that you might be capable of handling this business transaction, which I explained below.
There is an immigrant who was a gas consultant here in my great country, who happens to be one of my very good client. He died with his family on board the Swissair Flight 111 , which crashed into the Atlantic off Nova Scotia in september 2nd 2003. Before his death, he was having a closing balance of $12.8 Million Dollars with Credit suisse with account no: 01514770727 Upon maturity, a routine notification was forwarded to his address but there was no reply.
 
All attempts to trace his next of kin was fruitless. I therefore made further investigations and discovered that my late client did not declare any next of kin or relation in all his official documents, including his bank deposit paperwork am holding. This sum of $12.8 Million Dollars has been floating as unclaimed since 2003 in the bank as all efforts to get his relatives have hit the stones.
According to the Law of Financial Institutions, the money will be revert to the ownership of the Financial Institution, if nobody applies to claim the fund within five years. To avoid this money being sent to the Financial treasury as unclaimed funds, I have decided to seek your assistance to have you stand as his next of kin so that the said fund ($12.8 Million Dollars) would be released in your name as the next of kin and paid into your account before I come over to meet you for sharing.
 
All documents and proof that will help you claim this fund without stress will be forwarded to you. I want to inform you that I have unanimously agreed to offer you 40% of the total sum for your assistance and 20% will be given to charitable organizations while the remaining 40% will be my share. As a good Christian, I cannot stand and see this money being sent to the Financial treasury while the poor suffers,
 
I will be looking forward to your indication of interest so that we can proceed with the process of claiming the funds by furnishing me with the below information:-
 
1, YOUR FULL NAME. 
2, YOUR CONTACT TELEPHONE/MOBILE PHONE AND HOME NUMBERS FOR EASY COMMUNICATION.
3, YOUR FULL CONTACT HOME ADDRESS.
4, YOUR AGE.
5, YOUR OCCUPATION.  
6, A COPY OF YOUR INTERNATIONAL PASSPORT OR DRIVERS LICENSE.
 
As soon as I receive all these information from you I will start the process of all the legal approval documents with the above information you will send to me and present you to the bank Directors that I have succeeded in locating the relation/next of kin to my late client since I have been required to provide the relation/next of kin to my late client for them to release the inheritance fund to the person I present to the institution.
 
Please let me hear from you as you acknowledge the receipt of my mail and indicate your willingliness to handle such a beneficting inheritance fund transaction.
NOTE UPON YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THIS LETTER, PLEASE REPLY URGENTLY SO THAT I CAN START THE PROCEEDURES OF THIS TRANSACTION IMMEDIATELY.
 
Yours sincerely,
Matthew Spencer Esq

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