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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: "Richard Benton" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <richbenton1011@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2012 10:01:32 -0400
Subject: INQUIRY.

I am an Accountant with HSBC BANK U.K BRANCH England, my name is Richard Benton. A client of ours bank,Alexander,who is a citizen of your country,who work with Baltic Group. Development company in Russia. Here in after shall be referred to as my client. On 2006, my client have been poisoned with radioactive polonium-210. Since then I have made several inquiries to your embassy to locate any of my clients extended Relatives in Russia, this has also proved unsuccessful.
 
After these several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to trace his last name over the Internet,to locate any member of his family hence I contacted you.I have contacted you to assist in repatriating the money and property left behind by my client before they Get confiscated or declared unserviceable by the bank HSBC deposits were lodged, particularly the HSBC BANK.Where the deceased had an account Valued at about (6.8million Euro) has Issued me a notice to provide the next of kin to this my client Or HSBC will have the account confiscated within the next 20 official working days. Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives or any of his familyfor over 2 years now.
 
I seek your consent to present yourself as the next of kin of the deceased  and you bear the same name with this my client, so that the proceeds of this account valued at (6.8million Euro) can be paid to you and then you and me can share the money 45% to me and 45% to you And 10% for attorney will be
contracted to help re-validated and notarize all the necessary legal documents that can be used to back up any claim we may make about this money.All I require is your honest cooperation to enable us see this deal through.
 
I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you and we must keep as secret between us from any breach of the law. Please get in touch with me to my private email address: richbenton1011@yahoo.com.hk

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