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: "Terry Gilliam" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <tgilliam54@excite.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2011 16:45:56 -0700
Subject: Hi

A Very Good day to you

My names are Barrister Terry Gilliam of T & G LLC & Solicitors in United Kingdom. I actually got your contact information through the global public records while searching for a last name similar to my late client, a business magnate and a citizen of Israel who lived in Spain for Thirteen years. He died along with his family on the 20th of August 2008 Spanair MD-82 Plane Crash, which crashed in Madrid Barajas Airport at 16:18 Mins.

Before i proceed further, I must first make an apology for this unsolicited mail to you, I am conscious that this is certainly not a predictable way of approach to foster a relationship of trust because of the circumstances and urgency surrounding this claim I decided to reach you via this media to join me to put claims on this vault before it is seized or confiscated by the authorities, before the catastrophe, he deposited One Trunk Box containing the sum of $22.8M (TWENTY TWO MILLION, EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND US DOLLARS) with a Safe security company in Madrid-Spain and he did not disclose the exact content of deposited diplomatic box to the treasure house as cash but Personal valuables for security and personal reasons.

As the Confidential Attorney to my late client, the security company has mandated me to present a member of his family (heir/inheritor) to make Claims or else the Trunk Box containing the above indicated amount would be confiscated and taken to the Bureau of Diplomatic Security as unclaimed, I was given an ultimatum to look for some relatives of my late client to come forward and claim or have the Trunk liquidated and made unserviceable in accordance with existing laws of Spain. After preliminary efforts of searching for a direct family member of my late client which came to no avail, I decided to contact you in regards to this topic since you bear the same last name with my decease client and moreover you originate from Israel

My suggestion to you is that I will like to present you to the security company in Madrid-Spain as the sole beneficiary to the decease vault, I know you may or may not be anyway related to my decease client but having a common last name with him clearly indicates that the truck vault would be released to you without any hindrance because I have the necessary documents to back you up on this claim.

This transaction is 100% risk free as I have worked out all modalities to complete the operation effectively, once the vault/consignment is released to you, we shall split the total funds 50%-50%each. I I will appreciate your thought and concern towards this subject matter, please kindly indicate your interest in working with me on this case so that we both can achieve our mutual benefit from this deal by having the vault transfer into your possession as the sole-beneficiary to the decease client.

Your co-operation and understanding we be highly appreciated on this topic.

Yours in Service

TERRY GILLIAM

TERRY GILLIAM Esq.
SOLICITOR

Anti-fraud resources: