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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: "BARRISTER AHMED $ SONS" <bbarristerahmed@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: barristerahmed_0@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2010 12:41:56 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: ACT AS NEXT OF KIN




My name is Mr.Barrister Ahmed Walli I work in the credit and accounts
department
of the UNION BANK PLC
I write you in respect of a foreign customer with Domiciliary A/C
number (with held). His name is also with held for security reasons .
He was among
those who died in a plane crash here in Nigeria during the reign of late
General Sani Abacha.

Sir,since the demise of this our customer, who
was an oil merchant/contractor, I have kept a close watch of the deposit
records and accounts and since then no body has come to claim the
money in this
a/c as next of kin to the late Engineer.


He had only $18.5mllion in his a/c and the a/c is coded. It is only an
insider that could produce the code or password of the deposit particulars.
As it stands now, there is nobody in that position to produce theneeded
information other than my very self considering my position in the
bank.

Based on the reason that nobody has come forward to claim the deposit
as next of kin, I hereby ask for your co operation in using your name as
the next of kin to the deceased to send these funds out to a foreign
offshore bank a/c for mutual sharing between myself and you. At this
point I am
the only one with the information because I have removed the deposit file
from the safe .

By this doing, what is required of you is to send an application laying
claims of the deposit as next of kin to the late Engineer. I will need
your full name,phone number and address, company or residential, so that i
can
computerize them to tally with next of kin column in the certificate
of deposit.

Finally i want you to understand that the request for a foreigner as
the next of kin is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a
foreigner and for that reason alone a local cannot represent as next of
kin.

When you contact me, then we shall discuss on how the money will be
split between us.

Trusting to hear from you as I remain

Respectfully yours,
Barrister Ahmed Walli



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