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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: Victor Jacob <victorjacob@bellsouth.net>
Reply-To: victorjacob001@hotmail.com
Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 09:53:53 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Work With Me With Trust



Good day to you ,



Firstly, I apologize for sending you this sensitive information via e-mail instead of a Certified mail/Post-mail. This is due to the urgency and importance of the information. Hence, this letter to you.



I humbly crave your indulgence to read this e-mail with all seriousness of purpose devoid of any doubt in your mind because this project is based on trust, confidence and Sincerity of purpose in order to have an acceptable meeting of the minds.



This is a personal email directed to you and I request that it be treated as such. I am Victor O. Jacob, the Auditor General of Shell Co-operative Union in Nigeria. During the course of our auditing, I discovered a floating fund in an account opened in the bank in 1998 and since 2005 nobody has operated on this account that belongs late Client (Mr. Allen Gassner) hereinafter referred to as 'my customer' who worked as contractor with Chevron Texaco an oil magnate in my country and was killed as a result of attack from the Niger Delta militants in the year, 2004. you can read more about him on this web link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3655619.stm . until now no other person(s) knows about his account or could give any documentary evidence concerning this account Since the death of my customer in Oct,2004, I have written several letters to the embassy with an intent to locate any of his extended relatives whom shall be claimants/beneficiaries of his
abandoned personal estate and all such efforts have been More so, my customer deposited the sum of 4.8 million USD.On this note i decided to search for a credible person I decided to contact you, that I may,with your consent,

present you to the "trustee" bank as my late customer's surviving family member so as to enable you put up a claim to the bank in that capacity as a next of kin of my customer.



I propose that 50% of the net sum will accrue to you at the conclusion of this deal in so far as I do not incur further expenses. Therefore, to facilitate the immediate transfer of this fund, you need, first to contact me via signifying your interest and as soon as I obtain your confidence,I will immediately appraise you with the complete details as well as fax you the documents, with which you are to proceed and i shall direct on how to put up an application to the bank.



HOWEVER, you will have to assent to an express agreement in order to bind us in this transaction. Upon the receipt of your reply,I will send you by fax or E-mail the next step to take.I will not fail to bring to your notice that this proposal is hitch-free and that you should not entertain any fears as the required arrangements have been made for the completion of this transfer. Like I have implied, I require only a solemn confidentiality on this.



If you are interested kindly send your response to my personal email:



Best regards,





Victor Jacob

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