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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: "Mr. Erik Dobratz" <prvieirke@msn.com>
Reply-To: <erid1965@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2014 06:39:32 +0000
Subject: Hi Greetings


Hi Greetings
Good day to you. I am Mr. Erik Dobratz, a Consultant and Language Interpreter here in Madrid, Spain. I have a confidential business proposal I want to share with you in confidence, which I believe will benefit both of us. I got your contact information from the international brochure and I decided to contact you on this business based on that you bear the same Surname with our late client, who deposited the sum of US$22,000,000,00. (Twenty-Two Million United States of America Dollars) in a Bank Vault here in Spain, before he died on the 24th of March 2004 along with his wife and two children in a Motor Accident along Barcelona express way here in Spain.
All efforts revealed no link to any of his family member. However, because of the international financial problems here in Spain, a lot of reform has been made within the Spanish Financial system; this includes the new law on succession/claims which indicates a duration in which such deposit could be tolerated, for this reason, I decided to contact you to present you as the next of kin family representative to the deposit. Since we got information about his death, the bank has been expecting his Next of Kin or a member of his family to come over to claim this Deposit. I am contacting you as a member of his family to come over for this claim, due to I am the Consultant and Language Interpreter that helped him with the preparation of the legal papers for the deposit here in Spain.I have here copies all the documents which he used in making this deposit. I wish to seek for your permission to present you to the Bank as his family relation/representative based on you bear the same surname with him. (I want you to have full confidence, since both of you share the same family name, that makes you eligible to claim and with my help and guideline, it will be quite easy and simple) I have the Deposit Certificate, the Death Certificate of the depositor, the Power of Attorney and whichever document they will require from you for the claim.
Now the bank management cannot release this deposit unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or family representative to the deceased as indicated in the agreement guidelines, but unfortunately he died with all his family alongside with him at the car accident leaving nobody behind for the claim. I do not want the Bank to declare this money to the Spanish Government as unclaimed funds. Once this is done the top people in the government of Spain will confiscate the funds, and they will share it among themselves. Instead of this to happen it is better for us to do the transaction together and map out some part for charity donation, and share the rest.
I have agreed that 45% of this money will be for you as a foreign partner, in respect to your acceptance to do this business with me, while 30% will be for me and my contact person in the Bank. Then the remaining 25% we will use for donation to the charity homes.Therefore to enable the immediate release of the funds to you as arranged, you have to indicate your interest in this transaction to me, and I will let you know the next step. Once you apply for the release of this deposit it will be released to you immediately. I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch free. You should not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangement will be made perfectly.

At this moment you should understand that this should be kept very confidential, let it be between me and you only. This is the only way we can achieve success. When responding to my Letter I need your telephone number where I can communicate with you easily and more confidentially. I will call you when i saw yours: this is my private email: erid1965@yahoo.comThank you and I urgently look forward to hearing from you.
SincerelyMr. Erik Dobratz

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