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: "DR. FRANK WILLIAMS" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <dr_frankwilliams2012@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2012 08:00:03 -0800
Subject: Re : ARE YOU DEAD OR ALIVE REPLY URGENT


ATTENTION BENEFICIARY

STATE INHERITANCE COMMITTEE IN CONJUNCTION WITH STANDARD CHARTERED BANK

GHANA, WHICH MUST BE TREATED VERY URGENT.


We received a letter from the police that some individuals claim you are seriously ill and hospitalized that is why you are not writing again and said you have instructed them to claim your fund and make it via bank to bank direct to their bank account.


Bank Name: BANK OF AMERICA
Bank Address: 2075 S. Victoria Ave Ventura, CA 93003
Bank Phone Number: 800 788-7000
Account Name: Mr. Allen Smith.
Type: Checking
ABA # 322271627
Acct # 1951204345
Amount: US$1.9 Million


Please get back to us now, and if we wait for 48hrs as instructed by the police and do not hear anything from you, we will have no choice than to forward the payment to them as you have instructed.Meanwhile, We the State Inheritance Committee in conjunction with the standard chartered bank Ghana is to officially inform you that ATM card number: 3774 2856 7847 9006 worth Two Million Five Hundred Thousand (US$2.5 Million) has been credited in your favor in bid to compensate you on your contract payment with the Federal Republic of Ghana since you are next on our payment file for the last part of this fiscal Year 2012 because we want to complete every past contractors payment between now and the next 10 working days time. We have instructed the INTER SWITCH to prepare and send you the ATM CARD which you will use to withdraw your money in any ATM MACHINE in the world.

Your personal identification is ATM- 7997. Contact me as the verification officer with the following information bellow for proper immediate confirmation and verification processing of the Card:

1. FULL NAME
2. PHONE AND FAX NUMBER
3. FULL CONTACT ADDRESS(P.O BOX NOT ACCEPTABLE)
4. YOUR AGE AND CURRENT OCCUPATION
5. A COPY OF YOUR IDENTIFICATION

You are also required to send to the verification officer/agent a means of Identification which should be a scan copy of your Driver's License or International Passport for proper verification and authentication.We shall be expecting to receive your information, For now you have to stop any further communication with anybody or office. On this regards, do not hesitate to contact me via email for more details and direction, and also please do update me if you receive any information from any Office or anybody apart this Office.

Please get back to us now.

Dr. Frank Williams
For:STATE INHERITANCE COMMITTEE
Federal Republic Of Ghana.

Anti-fraud resources: