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: "Philip Morgan" <investcontactuk@yahoo.co.uk>
Reply-To: philipmorgan60@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Fri, 09 Sep 2011 12:52:57 +0200
Subject: From Philip Morgan





THE UBS AG Postfach 8098 Zürich,
Switzerland.
Swiss Clearing Number: 230
Postal Account: 80-2-2
SWIFT: UBSW CH ZH 80A
Web site: www.ubs.com

Hello,

I am an investment consultant working with Bank UBS AG Zurich at their
offshore department Zurich Switzerland. I will be happy to work this
deal out with you if you have a corporate or personal Bank Account and
if you are capable to keep TOP SECRET. I need strong Assurance that
you will never let me down, if I transfer this money to your account.

During one of our periodic auditing I discovered a dormant accounts
with holding balance of US$ 256,000.000.00 {Two hundred and Fifty six
million US Dollars only} Sometimes a person will open a bank account,
deposit money, and then disappear into the tin air. Banks are not
always able to find out what has become of these silent customers, or
to know whether they should follow up on requests from people who
claim to be heirs to the accounts. The main problem is that the
customer resides abroad and, due to bank secrecy, the bank cannot
publish notices in the international press to locate the depositories.
This has led the majority of Swiss banks to refrain from opening
small-deposit accounts for foreign customers; for fear that they will
forget that the account exists.

It has happened in the past, however, that customers pass away and
their heirs can neither prove the death, nor their heir ship. This was
a frequent occurrence during the wartime periods, and the banks have
now set up a simple, rapid resolution procedure operating to their
customers' advantage. Dormant assets are defined as any assets
deposited with a bank (i.e. an account, a custody account or a
safety-deposit box) for which there has been no contact with the
customer in the bank's files for the last ten years or more.

If you believe you have claim to a Swiss bank account for which the
holder (e.g. an ancestor) has not been in contact with the bank for
over ten years, there is a fairly simple procedure to follow,
depending on the date the account was opened this account has not been
operated for the past years. As at this moment, I am constrained to
issue more details about this business until your response is
received. If you are not familiar with Swiss Dormant Accounts and
profile, please take a moment of your very busy schedules to read
about Swiss dormant accounts:
website;http://www.crt-ii.org/2001_list/publication_list1_A.phtm

If you know that you are capable to handle large or small amount on
trust and can keep secret and ready to take 30% of any amount I
transfer to your account from the dormant account and I will take 70%,
send your account information's by return mail. Tell me more about
yourself, while I look forward to receive the above information. I
want to re-assure you that this business is risk free and you can send
an empty account to receive the funds, provided that the account is
capable to receive incoming funds.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Warmest Regards,
Mr. Philip Morgan.


Anti-fraud resources: