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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.John Owen" <johnowen@ok.net>
Reply-To: johnowen@mynet.com
Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2012 11:13:24 +0200
Subject: VERY VITAL INFORMATION!!!!!!!!!



Goodday to you,

My apologies that I had to send you this email without any prior
relationship between us; my name is Mr.John Owen, Chief Executive
Officer of the International Banking business of Markets &
International Banking (M&IB) at the Royal Bank of Scotland.

It is important that I let you know that an Ad hoc committee was
recently set up by the British Government to look into growing number
of dormant Bank accounts and personal Assets in UK Banks due to deaths
of customers and Deposited items, with a view to finding ways of
locating relatives of the dead customers and in the event that a
relative is not found, the British Government is already working with
some NGO'S through the unclaimed Assets Register, to confiscate and
divert unclaimed depositor's funds and assets to help the bad economy.
Read this article below:

http://www.unclaimedassets.co.uk/

I have however contacted you with the hope of presenting you as the
beneficiary (next of kin) to a late client in one of the Branches of
the Royal Bank of Scotland in the United Kingdom whose Deposit with
the Bank in the United Kingdom is worth Fourteen Million Seven Hundred
Thousand United States Dollars has remain unclaimed and has been in
the Bank , I figured out that since you share a common name with him,
I decided to contact you with this privileged information regarding
this Deposit, this is as a result of the fact that the late client has
nobody left to claim the Deposit.

If such a Deposit is not claimed or renewed to commence another tenure
of 6 years, a 6 months period of grace is granted to the Deposit
holder or his designated beneficiary, a probate order of Mandamus is
then issued to provide such a beneficiary whereby failure to do so at
the end of it's expiration the Deposit will be quarantined and
confiscated by the British Government.
I bore in mind your personality and reputation of which the same apply
to me, on this light I then deemed it fit to assure you that the
Deposit will be cleared in accordance with the firm's operational
procedures to ensure the transaction success without any breach of the
law.

One thing is certain, with the relevant legal documents that I will
get to back you up, the Deposit will be approved for onward transfer
to you.

If this is okay with you then get back to me so that I give you more details.

Let it be known to you that this $14,700,000.00 inside the Deposit
will be shared in the ratio of 50% for me and 50% for you.

I will want you to get back to me as soon as possible if you are
willing to assist in getting these funds, or you can give me a call on
my London line below which I acquired mainly for this purpose as I am
presently based in the UK.

Regards,

Mr.John Owen
+4470457 74810


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