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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: "Luciano Poly" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <lucianopoly@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2013 08:53:26 -0700
Subject: GETBACK TO ME ASAP VIA(lucianopoly@yahoo.com.hk)

Peace of the Lord be unto you. My name is Luciano Poly and I am a procurement officer with Barclays Private Bank and Trust Ltd. in the Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory and overseas territory of the European Union located in the western Caribbean Sea. I manage every account that goes in and out of this bank. Therefore I have access to every customer's bank account information. Why am I contacting you? It's simple!, really. I am sure you are aware of the uprising that took place in Lybia in 2011 which led to the death of the then president, Muammar al-Gaggafi. It was reported that he amassed numerous amount of money and deposited millions in many countries across the globe. Cayman Islands happens to be one of the countries he chose to hide these money. Obviously he did not open any of these accounts in his own name. They bear the name of big companies and individuals inside and outside his country. I have been monitoring this account for so long and I established along the line that it was one of the accounts the tyrant leader operated overseas. As it stands now Gaddafi has passed on and so has many of money. Many of these companies and individuals he used are not aware of any banking coordinates in their names. The account I have here bears the name Capt. Eustace Clark, with an account balance of $50M. This man happened to be a colleague of Gaddafi when he was in the military. He I present you with the opportunity to become wealthy on the silver plata. I want to believe you would not emulate this evil man with your wealth. I want to transfer this money to you for keep until I have erased all records of it from our database. Nobody in this bank knows of any links this account has with the deceased former president of Lyria apart from me. You have nothing to worry about as far as protocol is concerned. I will carry out every necessary operation here to ensure a smooth and riskfree transfer to your name and bank account. Trust me there is nothing dangerous in this deal because like I said every account runs in and out through me. I can conclude the transfer within 7 working days depending on your interest and dedication to the course. This is all I can say about this deal for now. I would like to know if you are interested in carrying out this life saving enterprise for both of us. If you are kindly state so so that we can begin immediately. I await your urgent response. Thank you. Yours sincerely, Luciano Poly

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