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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: "Jenny Beetles" <jenibeetles@jlsrl.com.ar>
Reply-To: jenibeetles@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2014 15:05:57 -0300
Subject: Greeting From Kenya

Greetings from Kenya

Before I introduce myself, I wish to inform you that this letter is not a
hoax mail and I urge you to treat it serious. We want to transfer to
overseas account($16,000.000.00 ) sixteen million US DOLLARS from a prime
Bank here in Kenya. I want to ask you, If you are not capable to quietly
look for areliable and honest person who will be capable and fit to
provide either an existing bank account or to set up a new Bank a/c
immediately to receive this money,even an empty a/c can serve to receive
this money, as long as you will remain honest to me till the end for this
important business trusting in you and believing in God that you will
never let me down either now or in future I am
Mr.Jenny Beetles , presently promoted to Auditor General in one of the
banks here in Kenya. During the course of our auditing last week, I
discovered a floating fund in an account opened in the bank in 2007and
since 2012 nobody has operated on this account again, after going through
some old files in the records I discovered that the owner of the account
died without a[Heir/WILL] hence the money is floating and if I do not
remit this money out urgently it will be forfeited for nothing. The owner
of this account is Mr. Keith Lathan
an American and a great industrialist and a resident of Alaska State, who
unfortunately lost his life in the Auto crash in Alaska , which crashed on
January 31 2009, including his wife and only daughter leaving nobody to
claim the money. No other person knows about this account or any thing
concerning it, the account has no other beneficiary and my investigation
proved to me as well that the account is a secret account. The total
amount involved is sixteen million US DOLLARS only [16,000.000.00 DOLLARS
]and we wish to transfer this money into a safe foreigners account abroad.
But I don't know any foreigner; I am only contacting you as a
foreigner because this money cannot be approved to a local person here,
but to a foreigner who has information about the account, which I shall
give to you upon your positive response. I am revealing this to you with
believe in God that you will never let me down in this
business, you are the first and the only person that I am contacting for
this business, so please reply urgently so that I will inform you the next
step to take urgently. I need your strong assurance that you will never
let us down, me and a key bank official who is deeply
involved with me in this business. I guarantee you that this transaction
will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from
any breach of the law. The bank official will destroy all documents of the
transaction immediately you receive this money
leaving no trace to any place. I will use my position and influence to
obtain all legal approvals for onward transfer of this money to your
account with appropriate clearance from the relevant ministries and
foreign exchange departments At the conclusion of this business, you will
be given 30% of the total amount, 70% will be for us. PLEASE,TREAT THIS
PROPOSAL AS TOP SECRET.
I look forward to hear from you.
Best Regards
Jenny Beetles

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