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: robenvanhorst@hotmail.com
Reply-To: robenhorst1@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Thu, 03 Jun 2010 20:29:08 +0700
Subject: CONFIRM TO ME

Ref:,

This request is sent to you in confidence and I hope you will be kind
enough to help. I work with one of the frontline banks in the U. K. as a
Finance Director and I am retiring at the end of September this year. Our
bank is going into merger with the Lloyds Bank Group and the official final
handover date is 31st December 2010.

In the interim, I acted as financial advisor for one of our prominent
clients - Mr.Andreas Schranner who sadly lost his life along with his
entire family members in the unfortunate Concorde Airliner crash of 1999.
Presently, our transaction records about to be handed over to the management
of Lloyds has in dormancy a fixed investment deposit of $8,750,000 USD,which
Mr.Andreas Schranner lodged with us before his untimely death. Ten solid
years have gone by without any transaction on the account. And considering
the global financial crunch biting many banks today, the management of our
bank has concluded it may absorb the funds into its operations before
handing over to the Lloyds Bank Group at the end of the year if no claim is
filed for the money from any member or relative of Mr.Andreas Schranner by
the end of this June.

I and two of my other top colleagues have decided to seek your assistance to
present you to the bank as a distant relation of the late Mr.Andreas
Schranner so that you can apply for and claim the funds for our collective
benefit rather than lose it to the bank. For your perusal, see the full
details of the the unfortunate Concorde airliner crash as broadly reported
on this news website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm

I pasionately need your assistance to partner with us in this deal as we
will do all that is necessary to see that the amount is transferred to your
credit within the shortest possible time once your name is submited to the
bank.

Please contact me immediately with your full details if you concent to this
arragement. We will discuss terms and your share in the business once I hear
from you.

Thanks
Yours Sincerely,
Roben von Horst


Anti-fraud resources: