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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: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: brsaunvann@admin.in.th
Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2013 10:28:32 -0500
Subject: LET ME HEAR FROM YOU

Dear Friend,
I contacted you last time but could not hear from you.
My names is Mr. Bruce Van Saun, the group finance director of one
of the new Generation Bank in United Kingdom (Royal Bank
of Scotland). There is this immigrant Mr. Andreas schranner,
a property magnate who was based in the U.K, and happens
to be one of our very good clients. He made a deposit of fund
valued at £18,500,000.00 (Eighteen Million Five Hundred
Thousand Great British Pounds sterling) with our bank here in
United Kingdom and unfortunately on the 25th of July 2000,
Mr. Andreas schranner, his wife Maria, their daughter Andréa
eich, her husband Christian, and their children Katharine and
Maximilian all died in the air craft (France concord plane crash)
bound for New York in their plan for a world cruise, do check
this link to see the highlight of what I am explaining (http://
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm). This sum
of £18,500,000.00 (Eighteen Million Five Hundred Thousand
Great British Pounds sterling) has been floating as unclaimed since
the year 2000 in my bank as all efforts to get across the relatives
of our client who deposited the money has hit the stones. I have
decided to seek your assistance to have you stand as his next of
kin so that the said fund would be released in your name as the
next of kin and paid into your account. We shall share this fund
based on a clear and legitimate agreement with you and for the
role you are going to play in this transaction. Be informed that
there is no risk involved as all necessary legal documents which
will be used to back you up as the legal beneficiary and next of
kin of my late client will be procured by my lawyer.
I await your response for further details. Thanks for your
understanding and do have a nice day.
Sincerely,
Mr. Bruce Van Saun
Email: brsaunvann@admin.in.th


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