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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. SUNNY LUCAS" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <sunnylucas2012@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2012 03:21:22 -0800
Subject: CRY FOR URGENT HELP PLEASE




ATTN: PRESIDENT/ C.E.O

PLEASE ASSIST MY FAMILY URGENTLY

Good Day, I know you might be surprised to receive this letter from me since you don’t know me personally. I am Mr. Sunny Lucas the Son of late Mr. Martin Dan Lucas, a Zimbabwean farmer, the owner of Dairy farms limited in Zimbabwe and Martin Dan Tobacco producing company limited, and Vice Chairman of vocal farming community, who was murdered in cold blood by the Zimbabwean War veterans and irate black people. I am writing this letter from the Republic of South Africa.

I got your contact address through the South African chamber of commerce during my earnest search for a trustworthy and reliable individual who can assist my family receive a reasonable sum of money in his private/company bank account. I write to solicit for your special assistance to my family shattered by a tyrannical government led by a dictator and his (ZANU-PF) ruling party, President ROBERT MUGABE of Zimbabwe: Please click on the links below and find out what happened in our country Zimbabwe from these links : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/918781.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1068528.stm

Because of the land and farmland crisis in Zimbabwe, the government secretly sponsored the war veterans and some irate party members to dispose the land being occupied by the blacks and whites farmers. This action has led to killing of some members of the opposition party including my father who did not support this ill-fated action. But before the death of my father, he anticipated some dangers and so he smuggled out the sum of US$25 Million (Twenty Five Million United State Dollars) to South Africa and deposited it in a Security & Finance Company with the intention of using it for the purchase of farm machinery and chemicals for agricultural Purpose in South Africa and for establishment of a new farmland in Swaziland and Botswana.

This money was deposited in a box as family valuables (Treasures) to avoid much demurrage in the Security & Finance Company were the money was deposited for safety. The war veterans and some supporters of (ZANU-PF) ruling party trooped into our family farm house and killed my father to death and burnt all our family belongings. Since then they have been terrorizing my family but we managed to escape to a neighboring country South Africa for our safety, were we are residing as a political asylum seeker (refugees), and the financial laws of Republic of South Africa prohibits asylum seekers the rights to invest or to operate any form of bank account or to operate any kind of business investment in the country.

That is why I want these funds to be transferred urgently into you’re overseas bank account or your company bank account so that you will assist us to invest the money in your country in a profitable investment. If you accept to assist us, all I want from you is to make an arrangement to travel down to Johannesburg South Africa so that you can assist us open a non-residential bank account in your name or in your company name with a commercial bank here in Johannesburg, South Africa which will aid us in transferring the money out of South Africa into your nominated account overseas. My family and I have two options for you, firstly, you can choose to have a certain percentage of the money for nominating your bank account in this transaction or we can go into partnership with you for the proper profitable investment of the money in your country, whichever option you want feel free to notify us. We will then furnish you with every details of this business transaction you need !
to know. I have also mapped out 5%

If you do not prefer a partnership, we are willing to give you 25% of the money while the remaining 70% will remain for my family. Finally, if you are really capable and willing to assist us please contact me immediately with my above contacts for more information on what to do next. Please treat this matter as urgent as possible, because my family is in dire need for urgent help to leave South Africa to start up a new life in your country soonest. I expect your urgent positive response.

Best Regards,
MR. SUNNY LUCAS

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