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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: "Tim Turnbull" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <timturnbull1@post.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:36:51 -0000
Subject: Private and Confidential

14th January, 2013

Good day,

I am Mr. Tim Turnbull, a Chartered Management Accountant and an External Auditor that is retained by the Bank of Ireland (BOI) to audit its activities in the
entire British Isles.In the course of routine audit of the Bank’s Accounts last year, I discovered that an investment account with a balance of US$12.5 Million
has been dormant for over 4 Years.

Further investigations of the said account reveal that the investor, who shares the same last name with you, died of cardiac arrest on 12th of November 2007
about the time the account was last operated.The said investor died intestate.Hence,no next-of-kin has come forward all these years to lay claim to
these Fund and the reason I am writing you is because you share the same last name.

What I proposing is that since I have exclusive access to the Late Investor, I am of the opinion that using my insider leverage, together with yourself, we can
secure the funds in this Bank account for ourselves instead of allowing it transmit as “unclaimed funds” into the Treasury of the Government of the United
Kingdom.

Our mutual co-operation in this regard would entail us using our exclusive access to his file and banking expertise to supervise the transfer of the funds
in this Account to an account nominated by you as the sole surviving relative of the deceased.Note that Legal documents to support the claims will be made
available to you.I am constrained to withhold most of the details for now.You shall be adequately compensated for your part in this transaction as I have
proposed to give you a 40% share of the total funds for your co-operation.

Please note,I am a family man, , I have a wife and Two children. I send you this mail not without measure of fear as to the consequences, but I know within me
that nothing ventured is nothing gained and that success and riches never come easy or on a platter of gold. Do not betray my confidence. If we can be of one
accord, we should act swiftly on this. Kindly get back to me if you are interested via my private Email or Fax.

Regards,

Mr Tim Turnbull
timturbull@post.com

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