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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: "Mr. Elgailu Malick." <mrelgailumalick@voila.fr>
Reply-To: <mrelgailu_70@voila.fr>
Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 13:04:22 -0400
Subject: Are You Interesting?.


Dear Sir.
My name is Mr. Elgailu Malick, the manager credit and foreign bills of
African Developement Bank Ltd Dakar Senegal Branch . I am writing in
respect of a foreign customer of my bank with account number
14-255-2004/adb/t, Mr.Gerald Smith who died in a plane crash (EgyptAir
Flight 990)which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on October 31st,1999 with
other passengers on board.You can view this web site for more story of the
inccident http://www.cnn.com/US/9911/02/egyptair990.list/index.html
Since the death of this customer, I personally have watched with keen
interest to see the next of kin but all has proved abortive as no one has
come to claim his funds of US$13,000,000.00(Thirteen Million Dollars)
which has been with my bank for a very long time. On this note I decided
to seek for whose name shall be used as the next of kin as no one has come
up to be the next of kin.
In view of this I got your contact through my country?s foreign trade
mission after I was convinced by providence that your name could be used
as the next of kin.The request of the foreigner as a next of kin in this
business is occasioned by thefact that the customer was a foreigner and a
Senegalias cannot stand as the next of kin to a Foreign client

I agreed that 30% of this money will be for you as a foreign partner in
respect of providing a new bank account or we can use your old
accountinformation,while the rest will be for me, thereafter, I will visit
your country for disbursement as I am almost due for retirement.Therefore,
to facilitate the immediate transfer of this fund to your account as
arranged, we must engage the services of a lawyer to apply on your behalf
to the bank as a relation to the deceased.I need you to indicate in your
response, your private telephone and fax numbers for easy communication
and your complete bank information where the money will be remitted into
for our mutual benefit. Upon the receipt of your reply, I will send you by
fax or e-mail the next step to take. I will not fail to bring to your
notice that this business is hitch-free and that you should not entertain
any fear as every modality and machinery for the success of this
transaction have been put in place.
You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive this
letter strictly on email for security reasons.

Trusting to hear from you.
Your respectfully,
Mr. Elgailu Malick.


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