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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Mr. Richard William" <mrrwilliam212@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: mrtc232tc@yahoo.com
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2012 00:23:15 +0800
Subject: Urgent Reply...


From: Mr. Richard William,

Attn: Sir/ Madam

I am Mr. Richard William; I am Chief investment consultant working with
Lloyds TSB Bank,London. This massage is strictly confidential and is for
your attention only. I wish to transfer the sum of Thirty Eight Million
British Pounds Sterling (£38 million GBP) which belong to Late Deceased,
Christian Goetz

The fund has been dormant (in-active) for 11 years in our Bank here without
anybody coming for it. I want to release the fund to you as the nearest
person to our deceased customer Christian Goetz (the owner of the account)
who died a long time ago with his supposed next of kin in air crash on 31st
July 2000. The Bank will release the fund to you as the nearest person to
the deceased customer. For more information about the crash you can visit
this site:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm

Through my investigation, I found out that nobody knows about this
account. And I'm his personal Account manager; I have with me all the files
concerning this fund. However, if you can be Honest/confidence to me, you
should kindly send me the following information, so that I will detail you
on how we will conclude this transaction within 7 working days; because all
the necessary arrangement has been made.

(1) Your Bank name.........
(2) Your Bank address............
(3) Your Account number even if it is an empty existing account is OK,...
(4) Your Account name........
(5) Swift code if any......
(6) Your full name......
(7) Your full residential/office address........
(8) Your private Tel numbers........ for easy communication.
(9) Your occupation..........
{10}Your country:.....

I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch-free
and you should not entertain any fears as the required arrangements have
been made for the completion of this Project. At the completion of this
transaction, you will be given 40% of the total amount of the money, while
50% will be my share of the total amount and 10% set aside is in case of
any expenses incurred in this transaction.

I need a strong assurance from you that you will not let me down hence the
money is transferred into your account. Your urgent attention to this
regards will be highly appreciated.

God Bless You.
Mr. Richard William.

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