joewein.net   joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days
  jwSpamSpy

Home
About Us
Spam
419/Nigeria
Fraud
Contact

"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: "Roman" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <nelsonroman45@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Mon, 5 Nov 2012 00:00:56 +0800
Subject: From Nelson & Associate.

>From The Desk of Barrister Nelson Roman, Nelson & Associate Chambers Bangkok Thailand. Dear Friend, Firstly, I must solicit your confidence in this transaction; this is by virtue of its nature as being utterly confidential and top secret. Though I know that a transaction of this magnitude will make any one apprehensive and worried, but I am assuring you that all will be well at the end of the day. Let me start by first introducing myself properly to you. It may surprise you receiving this letter from me, since there was no previous correspondence between us. I am Barrister Nelson Roman, A personal Attorney to late Mr.James Brown. My purpose of contacting you is for you to help secure the funds left behind by my late client, to avoid it being confiscated or declared unserviceable by the Bank where this fund valued $20,000,000.00 (Twenty Million) deposited by my client before his death. Unfortunately, My client and the family all lost their lives in the event of the accident. Since then I have made several enquiries to Embassy,to locate any of my client's relatives, this has also proved unsuccessful. After these several unsuccessful attempts,I decided to trace his relatives over the Internet to locate any member of his family but to no avail, hence, I contacted you to assist in repatriating the money left behind by my client in a Finance Company, Particularly, the Finance House where the deceased deposited US$20 Million (Twenty Million United States Dollars Only). Consequently, this Finance House issued me a notice to provide the Next of Kin to claim the US$15 Million (Twenty Million United States Dollars Only) in their custody within the next ten official working days. Since I have been unsuccessful in locating any of the relatives for over 5 years now, I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin of the deceased, to claim the fund as Next of Kin to my late client Mr.James Brown. Upon receipt of the fund, I will come over to your country to meet with you for the disbursement of the fund, and we will share the money in this order: 70% will be for me, 30% will be for you. I have all the necessary legal documents that can back our claim and we will work with the Finance House to see the successful end of this transaction. All I require is your honest co-operation to enable us seeing this deal through. I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. You are needed as a next of kin to inherit your brother left fund. Best regards. Barrister Nelson Roman (Esq).

Anti-fraud resources: