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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 Willem Jacobus" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <willemjaobs@yahoo.co.za>
Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2012 14:32:08 +0800
Subject: Business suggestion..

Attn:
 
With due respect to your person and much sincerity of purpose, I make this contact with you as I believe that you can be of great assistance to me. My name is Mr. Willem Jacobus, from South Africa. Presently I work in the Group Bank of Africa as a banker in Benin Republic.
 
I have gone through your profile and I will be glad if you could consider my proposal and let me work with your esteem organization or as an individual. After viewing your profile, I made up my mind to confide this urgent business suggestion to you.
 
Please see this proposal as confidential message and do not reveal it to another person even if you are interested or not. Do let me know whether you can be of assistance regarding my proposal below because it is top secret.
 
I am about to retire from active Bank service to start a new life but I am skeptical to reveal this particular secret to you. You must assure me that everything will be handled confidentially because I am sure of my in making it a success.
 
It has been 8 years now that most of the greedy African Politicians used our bank to launder money overseas through the help of their Political advisers. Most of the funds which they transferred out of the shores of Africa were gold and oil money that was supposed to have been used to develop the continent. Their Political advisers always inflated the
amounts before transfer to foreign accounts so I also used the opportunity to divert part of the funds hence I am aware that there is no official trace of how much was transferred as all the accounts used for such transfers were being closed after transfer.
 
I acted as the Bank Officer to most of the politicians and when I discovered that they were using me to succeed in their greedy act; I also cleaned some of their banking records from the Bank files and functional units, no one cared to ask me because the money was too much for them to control. They laundered over $7b Dollars during the process. As I am
sending this message to you, I was able to divert Twenty Seven million five hundred thousand united state dollars ($27.5m) to an escrow account belonging to no one in the bank. The bank is anxious now to know who the beneficiary to the funds is because they have made a lot of profits with the funds.
 
It is close to Eight years now and most of the politicians are no longer using our bank to transfer funds overseas. The ($27.5m) has been lying afloat and I don't want to retire from the bank without transferring the funds to a foreign account where I can be able to make use of my share of the funds with you. I only want you to assist me in claiming the funds in order for me to receive the funds abroad through your help. You are not to face any difficulties or illegal implications as all will be conducted legally. If you are capable of receiving the funds, do let me know immediately to enable me give you a detailed information’s.
 
Please get back to me if you are interested and capable to handle this project. I shall intimate you on what to do once I hear your confirmation of acceptance.
 
Yours Faithfully,
Mr. Willem Jacobus

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