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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: "Mr.Mawn Inus" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <inusmawnn@cantv.net>
Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:56:51 +0200
Subject: Good day,

Good day,

My name is Mawn Inus a banker and I am contacting you in regards to a business transfer. Though I know that a transaction of this magnitude will make any one apprehensive and worried, but I am assuring you that all will be well at the end of the day, hence I plead you to read carefully till the end.

I was the personal accounts manager to a deceased customer, a foreigner, Mr.Vinntce , a nationality of your country who had an account with us here in Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). On July 7, 2005, in a fatal accident, resulting in the loss many and unfortunately my client, his wife, and their three children were among the people that died on that fateful day.

Of particular interest is this huge deposit with our bank here in my country Cote d'Ivoire in West Africa (Ivory Coast), where the deceased has an account valued at about (8.7 million Euro). They have issued me a notice to provide the next of kin or our bank will declare the account unserviceable and thereby send the funds to the bank treasury. Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for the past years, I will seek your consent to present you as the beneficiary of the account since you are a foreigner and probably share same last name with the deceased, so that the proceeds of this account valued at (8.7 million Euro) can be paid to you and then you and I can share the money.

This account is a special account called (suspense account) and in the account file, the deceased did not enter any name as beneficiary in case of death as in this case now, hence you as a foreigner and sharing same last name as my search proves, will easily pass as the beneficiary to this account. All I require is your honest cooperation to enable us seeing this deal through. I guarantee that this will be executed under all legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law.

In your reply mail, I want you to give me your full names, address, date of birth, telephone and fax numbers. If you can handle this with me, reach me now for more details.

Thanking you for your anticipated cooperation.

Sincerely,
Mr. Mawn Inus.

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