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: William Cornel <williams.cornell58@gmail.com>
Reply-To: william.cornell1990@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2010 12:42:02 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: ARE YOU DEAD OR ALIVE?


Head Office: 155 Bishops gate London EC2M 3YB
London England; United Kingdom
United Kingdom
 
Dear Benefactor,
 
IS IT FALSE OR TRUE
 
In the course of our General Auditing and Account revision of the first quarter of the year 2010 we discovered that the Bank Accounts belonging to some Benefactors have been changed on the basis that the owners have died some time last year or have given out an authorization note of change of data. After the investigations however, it was revealed that there are Foreigners who are collaborating with Retired Staffs to make these changes illegally without the knowledge of the Bona-fide Benefactors and one traced to your own change is this Mr. Joseph J Tuminello of United States of America, who said you are dead, He have also forwarded this bank account below as the new account that will receive this money.
 
Bank: Compass Bank
Bank Address: 2810 West Peoria
Phoenix Arizona 85029
1-602-866-5500
Fax 1-602-866-5505

Account Name Joseph J Tuminello
Account Number 2516118450
Rout Number 122105744
Swift code CPA SUS 44
 
But we wanted to confirm if actually this is true and hence decided to write to your email address which after 2 days from now and there is no response, we will then know that you are dead indeed and go on with the transfer. If proved otherwise by you that you did not die, please forward to us all the related Benefactors particulars including your Telephone number, contact address. These details from you will help to assist us reach a conclusion that you are not dead.
 
Anything contrary to this claim will help us stop the transfer and re-program the transfer to your advice.
 
Yours faithfully,
Mr. William Cornell
Remittance/Foreign Operation Manager
Bank of Scotland,
London Uk
Ph: 00 44 70 318 614 73
 

Anti-fraud resources: