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: "LOIUS MICHAEL" <"loiusmichael133@"@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: loius_michael@yahoo.com
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:36:51 -0000
Subject: FINAL NOTIFICATION




Attn:
The Beneficiary,
Estate of Engr. Terry Williams.
FINAL NOTIFICATION
Please confirm your receipt of this mail because previous correspondence have
been sent to you but we did not get any response from you. Bear in mind that
no execution will be carried out without the endorsement of Jones Brown (the
overseer of the church where he worshiped before his death here in London)and
me the attorney for the execution. On-behalf of the Trustees and Executors of
the Will of late of Engr. Terry Williams (ksm), I wish to notify you that you
were listed as a beneficiary to the bequest of the sum of US$1.3M [One Million
Three Hundred Thousand US Dollars] in the codicil and last testament of the
deceased. The late Terry Williams until his death was a former Managing
Director and pioneer
staff of a big construction company in China and later invested in poultry
farm and rice. He established himself as a wealthy farmer in Asia where he
exported rice and other poultry produce.
He was a very dedicated man and a great philanthropist during his life time.
He involved himself in helping people by giving invest-able loans in
agriculture and health care ventures. Late Terry Williams died on 9th December
2011 at the age of 78. He has since been buried on the 23rd of January 2012.
He was an American, lived in Asia all through his active
years but later moved down to London due to long term illness where he died in
a specialist hospital. He was married but without a child an lost his wife in
2006 due to breast cancer.
He said in his words as stated in his last testament that "it is my desired
wish to see that the poor and less privileged are given assistance by any
means and limit this token could go, especially in Asia, Africa and South
America having seen it all myself". He therefore advised that this amount be
"invested and 40% of the proceeds be used for charity annually, while 60% be
retained by the beneficiary for his efforts".
I hereby request that you forward your current telephone for further
discussion and your correct forwarding address to enable us file necessary
documents of claims at probate registry for the release of this funds to you
.
Please inform me if you did receive this notification this time or the
Jones Brown ( revjonesbrown@gmail.com)
Yours faithfully,
Estate of Terry Williams

Anti-fraud resources: