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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: Fabian Habib <office567office@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: fhabib20@hotmail.com
Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2011 02:19:56 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Get Back to me




RE: TRANSFER OF £15.400.000.00 GBP VERY URGENT.

I know that this message will come to you as a surprise since we do not know each other before, my name is Mr. Fabian Habib, and I am an Auditor in our bank here in London. On a routine auditing I discovered a dormant domiciliary account with a balance of 15.400.000.00 GBP (fifteen Million, Four Hundred Thousand British Pounds). I also discovered that the account holder a foreigner and a business man and his entire family died in a plane crash on Saturday, July 5, 2008 without leaving any heir to this fund hence there is no beneficiary or next of kin to the account.

And now the bank wants to confiscate this fund because nobody has come to claim the money. Therefore, I wish to let you know that the bank can approve this money to you as a foreigner if you can come up because the former holder of this account is dead, and there is nobody to claim this money as his beneficiary, that is why the account has remain dormant for several years now. I want to assure you that there is no risk in this transaction as I have made all the necessary arrangements for the successful transfer of this money.

I will use my position and influence to effect legal approvals and onward transfer of this money to your account with appropriate clearance forms of the ministries and foreign exchange departments. At the conclusion of this transaction, you will be given 40% of the total amount, while 60% will be for me.

However, I wish to let you know that this business requires to be kept as a top secret until the fund is transfer to your account, the secret of this transaction is as well as the success of it therefore let this be only be an exclusive information for both of us. And please accept my sincere apology keep my confidence and disregard this mail if you are not interested in this business.

I wait your urgent response.
Yours Sincerely,
Fabian Habib


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