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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.Walid Husni Ali" <mutawaalibj3@gmail.com>
Reply-To: walidhusnic@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 4 Jan 2012 13:03:30 +0100
Subject: Please your urgent reply is highly needed

Dear Sir.

I am Mr Walid Husni Ali. a Bank Manager here in Benin Republic.I will like
to introduce a very brief business with you, there is a dormant account in
my bank with a credit balance of (US$20.524M) which has been dormant for
about five years now, on my further investigation I discovered that the
owner of account is a foreigner who died five years ago in a motor accident
along side his wife and two children, but left no information about his
next of kin for the account because he was hiding the source of the money
from the government.

What I need from you is to use your name as the beneficiary and next of kin
to the original account owner and then I will use my position as the Bank
Manger to give Clearance and onward remission of the fund into your
nominated Bank account.

I will supply you with all necessary information about the account, which
you will present to the bank through a lawyer, after the bank has accepted
your application then I will go ahead and destroy every documents
associated with this transaction and we will go ahead and share the money
at the ratio 30% for your services to me and 60% for me, the remaining
10%will be set aside for any expenses incurred during this transaction.

Please your urgent reply is highly needed so as to stop further contacts
this is for people who know the value of banking system, kindly include
your telephone and fax numbers.

You may also reach me at my private email address or, call me for further
information on: mrwha20@gmail.com

Best regards,
Mr Walid Husni Ali.

Anti-fraud resources: