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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: Chiars Collins <chiarscollins@ssummail.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Feb 2010 05:36:31 -0800 (PST)
Subject: I beg your excuse

I  beg your excuse
for the inconveniences. My name is Mr charles collins, I work with one of the  Banks here in abidjan cote d' lvoire. I am the personal accounts manager to one Engr. Norman.R.Frank , a National of U.S.A from new york, who owned a construction company here in ivory coast (Cote Ivoire)norman construction company my client, his wife, and their three children were involved in the ill  fated Kenya Airways crash in the coasts of Abidjan in January 2001 in which  all passengers on board died.Since the death of my customer, I have made severalinquiries to his embassy to locate any of my clients extended relatives but has been unsuccessful. After several unsuccessful attempts, Idecided to contact you this huge deposit with our bank here in, where the deceased has an account valued at about US$5 million United States dollars.

Being the personal a/c manager of the deceased's bank account, the bank has issued me a notice to providethe next of kin/beneficiary or else the bank will declare the account unserviceable and thereby forfeit the funds to the bank treasury. Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for over the past 2 years now,I hereby seek your consent (with due respect and honour) to present you as the next of kin to the deceased so that the proceeds of  this account can be paid to you and then you and I will share the money 50 / 50.

All .I require is your honest cooperation to enable us seeing this deal throw However, I urgently need you the following information from you which I have to plase in the computer file of the deceased as next of kin/beneficiary: -1- your full name, -2- your date of birth 3-resident address.and i will like you to send me your telephone and fax for easy communication I guarantee that this will be executed under all legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. Need you be interest, kindly reach me via my private email 
as indicated above for further details.
Thanks in advance as I
anticipate your maximum
cooperation in this regards.
Mr Charles collins


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