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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: "Peter Thomas" <hbblake1@virgilio.it>
Reply-To: <oi6tgtg@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2011 04:59:44 +0100
Subject: Acknowledge Receipt

Greetings,


I want to bring to your attention, facts on an important transaction. Notice was issued to all financial institutions with National Savings and Investments to estimate the value of its unclaimed assets in savings with no customer activity for long periods with a view to harness around $1bn lying dormant in the nations bank and building society accounts for re-investment.
Financial assets are considered unclaimed when contact with an owner or beneficiary is lost for an extended period claims. This often happens due to a name change after marriage or divorce, an unreported change of address or expired postal forwarding order, incomplete business transactions, illegible records and result of computer and clerical errors. When owners fail to claim an asset over a specified number of years known as the dormancy period, these funds which are held by financial institutions including but not limited to banks, stock brokers, utilities, employers, life insurance companies and others - transfer custody to a special trust account in a process known as escheat.

I have details of an already dormant account containing US$8.4 Million (Eight Million Four Hundred Thousand United States Dollar) which has already been marked as unclaimed asset and will be reverted to the ownership of the treasury without any further claims notice. Routine mails have been sent to the listed address concerning the bank deposit without any response.
My proposition to you is to seek your consent, and to present you as the next-of-kin and beneficiary to the account; This means that the proceeds of the bank account would be paid to you as his next of kin or the legitimate beneficiary. We would then share the percentage on a mutually agreed-upon 60% for me and 40% to your kind self.

This will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that would protect you from any breach of the law. Everything will be carried out according to the law.
If this business proposition offends your moral and ethic values, do accept my sincere apology. I must use this opportunity to implore you to exercise the utmost indulgence to keep this matter extraordinary confidential, whatever your decision, while I await your prompt response.

Yours Faithfully,

Mr. Peter Thomas
Personnel Management

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CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE
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The information in this email may be confidential and/or privileged. This email is intended to be reviewed by only the addressee(s) named above. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any review, dissemination, copying, use or storage of this email and its attachments, if any, or the information contained herein is prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please immediately notify the sender by return email and delete this email from your system. Thank you

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