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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. Sylvester Regele" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <s.regele@postino.net>
Date: Wed, 23 May 2012 16:20:10 +0200
Subject: Joint Venture.

Dear Sir,

Please accept my apologies if this letter might cause you any embarrassment. My name is Sylvester Regele and i am an assistant Head of private banking HSBC bank in United Kingdom. Recently, I was in Spain for a banking symposium that was held in Madrid. Bankers, investment-stock brokers, merchant banker, insurance brokers, economists, political dignitaries etc., across the globe were all in attendance during the symposium and it was aimed at finding measures in strategizing monetary policies and other economic measures that will alleviate the global financial meltdown through budget deficit cut.

It was during this symposium that I sent you this letter. The main reason for sending you this letter is to inform you that one of our clients with HSBC left behind a deposit sum of €30,000,000.00. This client is a prominent Arab politician. He died with his entire family during a war disaster and left no next of kin or heir behind who should claim the funds on his behalf. By British financial laws, after 18 months if no relative or next of kin comes forward to claim the funds, the Federal Supervisory Financial Authority (FSFA), will deposit the fund in the treasury account.

I used the opportunity presented by this symposium to arrange with a Podemos Financial and Security Company (Podemos Financiera y la Empresa de Seguridad) that would help us move the funds to Spain pending further claims. In this regards i seek your consent to present you as the beneficiary to claim the funds for me by personally going to the security company in Spain and receive the funds in cash. I shall provide you with the necessary details that you would present as the beneficiary.

I am offering you 30 percent of the total sum after collecting the funds on my behalf, while you will transfer the remaining 70 percent to my bank account in UAE.

If you are interested get back to me by email: s.regele@postino.net or telephone: +44-1224466779 so that i can instruct you on how to proceed with this transaction.

Thanks for your time and understanding.

Regards,
Mr. Sylvester Regele.

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