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: "Mr. Vincent Cheng" <info@bcc.com>
Reply-To: mrvincent16@yahoo.com
Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:47:01 +0800
Subject:

Good Day,

I am Mr. Vincent Cheng Hoi Chuen, GBS, JP Chairman of the Hong Kong and
Shanghai
Banking Corporation Limited.

Our clinet General Saber Mohammed saber, a businessman and also who was with
the Iraqi
forces, made a fixed deposit, of Thirty million Five Hundred Thousand United
State
Dollars only in my branch, a number of notices was sent to him, before the
war which
began in 2003 and also after the war but, no response came from him. We later
found out
that General saber Mohammed saber was shot dead along with his son, Khalid
Amer also in
the force as they left the family home for work in the south of the city.

After more inquiry it was also discovered that the late General, did not
declare any
next of kin in his official papers including the paper work of his bank
deposit. What
bothers me most is according to the laws of my country at the expiration of 6
years the
funds will be reverted to the ownership of the Hong Kong Government if nobody
comes for
the funds, Against this scenery, I have all the information needed to claim
these funds
and I want you to act as the beneficiary of the deposit, there is no risk
involved in
this matter, as we are going to adopt a legitimate method and the attorney
will prepare
all the necessary documents.

All I require is your honest co-operation and I guarantee that this will be
executed
under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the
law. Please
accept my apologies, keep my confidence and disregard this email if you do
not
appreciate this proposition I have offered you.

All confirmable documents to back up the claims will be made available to you
prior to
your acceptance and as soon as I receive your return mail Via my email
address
(mrvincent16@yahoo.com)
Best regards
Mr.Vincent Cheng

Anti-fraud resources: