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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: Michael Sitole <michael_sitole@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 21 May 2014 11:00:20 +0100 (BST)
Subject: CONFIDENTIAL PROPOSAL


From: Chief Michael Sitole
Tel : +27-74-309-6628
Fax: +27-11-209-3452
Email: drmichaelsitole@gmail.com
 
                                                             CONFIDENTIAL PROPOSAL
 
I am Dr. Michael Sitole the Auditor General Of Standard Bank Of South Africa Sandton Branch, In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of US$17. 500.000(Seventeen  Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) in an Offshore account that belonged to one of our foreign customer, Late Mr. Joel Sawoo an Indonesian citizen who died in 2011 Tsunami in Japan.

Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin or relatives to come forward and put claims to his money because we cannot release it  unless somebody applies for it as the next of kin/beneficiary or relative to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines.

Unfortunately, I learned that is supposed next of kin being his only daughter dies also on this Tsunami disaster leaving nobody with the knowledge of these funds behind for claim, its therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to strive a deal with you which will authorize my Bank to release the money to you as next of kin to/ business partner of the deceased as only beneficiary to the funds for safety keeping and subsequent disbursement, since nobody is laying claims to it and we don’t want this money to go back into Government treasury as unclaimed assets.

Our banking laws and guidelines here stipulated that if such money remains unclaimed after 3 years, it will be transferred into Government treasury as unclaimed funds, I agree that 40% of this money would be for you as gratification for the assistance you will render to claim these funds, while 60% will be for me, I will visit your country for the disbursement according to the percentages indicated above once this money gets into your account.

Please be honest to me as trust stands to be our watchword in this transaction.

My assurance is that your role is 100% risk free to accord this transaction the legality it deserves since all modalities are already in place, I am certain in actualizing a hitch free transfer of the funds without any complications.

Kindly signify your intention or your interest by sending me an email for further detailed procedures relating to this transaction.

Please note that all necessary arrangement for the smooth release of these funds to your name has been finalized as I will use my position to influence all transaction. We will discuss much more in details when I receive your kind response.

Finally, we shall actualize this goal and the funds we be transferred within few bank working days as soon as here from you.

Thanks and thanks for your understanding.
Kind Regards.

Dr. Michael Sitole

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