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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: Michael Scicluna <mr.scicluna@videobank.it>
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2010 08:35:25 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: CAN YOU BE TRUSTED?

Dear Friend,

I guess this letter might come to you as a surprise since I had no previous
correspondence with you, But with due respect I got your contact from the
internet in my research for a reliable and trustworthy person who will be fit and capable to assist me in handling a very confidential business transaction involving the transfer of US35.5 million dollars only. The above fund is not connected with arms, drugs or Money laundering; neither is it related to any terrorist sponsor of any sort.

I am Michael Scicluna, an accountant and a branch manager, The Board members with the office of the Director, International Remittances/Foreign Operation,has approved and accredited this reputed bank to handle and transfer all foreign inheritance funds this final quota of the year. During the course of my annual general auditing, I discovered a domiciliary account that has not been operated,for three years I have kept this secret within myself. Now, I decided to seek your full co-operation and partnership to move out these funds urgently. Hence; the dormant nature of the account and without any traceable next of kin, if I do
not remit the funds out urgently, the account will be confiscated and the funds will be re-channeled into the government purse to be shared
among themselves.

All I need from you is to stand as the beneficiary to this dormant account and to provide either an existing bank account or set up a new Bank account
immediately to receive this fund or you help to seek an honest and reliable
businessman who can assist us. I am only contacting you as a foreigner because these funds cannot be approved for a local account here and I am not supposed to be in possession of such amount of dollars. But the funds can only be approved to any foreigner whom I present as the beneficiary to the funds.

I will use my position in the Bank to do all the underground work and hasten the approval and release of the funds in your favor. I will be monitoring the whole situation here in this bank until you confirm the funds in your account and ask me to come over to your country for our subsequent sharing of the fund according by percentages. This transaction will only take us 14 Banking days to finalize. So do not border or entertain any atom of fears as all modalities has been mapped out for us achieve success and this is my 25 yrs in the banking industry.

At the successful completion of the transaction, You shall be compensated with 35% of the funds for standing in as the beneficiary while 5% will be mapped out to offset any expenses that might arise in the course of the transfer, 10% will be channeled to charity and 50% to me the originator of the Business.

I need your full co-operation to make this work fine, as I will use my office to see that the transaction is hitch free and will destroy entire documents relating to the transaction once we conclude the Deal. Please, you have been advice to keep "top secret" for now as I am still in service
and intend to retire after we conclude this deal.

Further details about this transaction will be discussed in the subsequent
correspondence.

Best regards,
Michael Scicluna
Director Auditing Department
Lloyds TSB Bank
London, United Kingdom.




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