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: "Barr.Melvin Casey" <barr.melvin777@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 19 May 2014 19:12:06 +0100
Subject: Urgent & Important

BARRISTER MELVIN CASEY'S LAW CHAMBERS
LEGAL PRACTITIONERS AND PRIVATE LAWYER
111 CRAVEN HILL GARDEN
LONDON, W1F 8GJ
UNITED KINGDOM

LATE MR. RONALD STEWART'S PHILANTHROPIC FUND

Attn: Sa/Ma,

My name is Barrister Melvin Casey; I am a native of England, and president
in the Chambers Melvin Casey Law Chambers here in London United Kingdom. I
am a legal practitioner, called to the U.K Bar in 1986. I used to be the
personal Attorney to late Mr. Ronald Stewart.

Mr. Ronald Stewart was a great philanthropist before death; before he died,
he made a philanthropic will of Eight Million Dollars (US$8,000,000.00)
which was meant to be donated to charity organizations in Africa to support
African children living with HIV/AIDS.

We conducted an electronic email random draw in our chambers today, and
your email address was picked as the beneficiary to this philanthropic fund
of $8m.

It is our great desire to claim this fund so that it can be used for the
purpose for which it is meant, because the bank where the money is
currently deposited has instructed that we produce the beneficiary of this
fund within 14 working days else the money will be confiscated to the
Government's treasury as unclaimed funds.

You have to get back to me immediately so that we can begin the process of
transferring the fund into any of your designated bank accounts. As soon as
I receive your reply message I shall give you further information on the
process.

With your full co-operation, this transaction shall be concluded within 7
days, and after the funds have been transferred into your account, you
shall keep 30% of the money ($2.4m) to yourself as
the beneficiary, donate 30% to any Charity Organization of your choice,
while the balance of 40% comes to me as the attorney in this transaction.

Also, this transaction is highly confidential and should remain as such
until the funds must have been transferred into your account, so do not
discuss this transaction with ANYBODY.

I wait to hear back from you immediately, so that I can give you all the
necessary information needed to proceed, and don't forget to include your
name, location and phone numbers in your response.

Regards,

Barrister Melvin Casey(Esq.)
Copyright ? 2014 Melvin Casey Law Chambers, all rights reserved.

Anti-fraud resources: