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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: Mr Hilary Celestin <mrhilary.celestin@voila.fr>
Reply-To: hilary.celestin@voila.fr
Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2011 12:14:31 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: DEAR FRIEND I NEED YOUR ASSISTANT




Dear  Friend,



I am MR  HILARY  CELESTIN,  I am   working with the   ISLAMIC BANK OF AFRICA (I S B.O.A).  Really 
I know   you may be surprise   to receive 
this letter and you may be ask you don’t   know 
whom  I am , but  really I believe   that  
with this  transaction both of us
are  going to be like  one family 
in future  .  In my department we discovered an abandoned
sum of $15m US dollars ( fifteen million US dollars) , In  account that
belongs to one of our foreign customer who died along with his wife on December
2007  In a Motor accident on their  way  travelling to one of
our city name BOBO DIULASSO .



Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of
kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless
somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated
in our banking guidelines but unfortunately I  learnt that his supposed
next of kin  died  along with him  which is  his  wife 
and from his  file my self  learnt  that none of  his 
relation  know  about this  money  in our bank .



It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this business
proposal to you so that you and I will claim  this money since I have all
the information related to this  money  in our bank also the deceased
customer  because  know  body  is coming  for
the  money as  his relation,   which you are going to stand
as the deceased customer’s  business partner  for the  bank
management  to  believe really  you are   his 
business  partner  when they receive your application  I will
send to you to apply  for the  transaction to  commence.



The Banking law and guideline here stipulates that if such money remained
unclaimed after five years, the money will be transferred into the Bank
treasury as unclaimed fund. The request of foreigner as next of kin in this
business is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a
Burkina be can not stand as next of kin to a foreigner.



I decided to make it that 50 % of this money will be for you as my foreign
partner, in  provision of a foreign account and stand fully  on
this  claim as my  partner   50 % will be for me, the 
money  will be shared  equally.



Then I will visit your country for sharing according to the percentages
indicated, Therefore to enable the immediate processing   of this
fund to you as arranged, you must apply first to our bank as business partner
to the deceased indicating your bank name, your bank account number, your private
telephone and fax number for easy and effective communication and location
where in the money will be remitted  



Upon your reply, I will send to you more details on how this transaction will
be  executed.



 THANKS



MR  HILARY  CELESTIN

+226 78 24 82
47





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