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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: Richard Morgan <morgan2_0@yahoo.co.uk>
Reply-To: morgan8_0@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 13:16:06 +0000
Subject: From Richard Morgan

Hello,
I urge you to treat it serious. We want to transfer to overseas
account($30,000.000.00 USD) Thirty million United States Dollars) from
a prime Bank here in London. I want to ask you, If you are not capable
to quietly look for a reliable 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 the future.

I am Mr. Richard Morgan, presently promoted to Auditor General in one
of the banks here in London. During the course of our auditing last
week, I discovered a floating fund in an account opened in the bank in
2000 and since 2004 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 an American and a
great industrialist and a resident of Alaska State, who unfortunately
lost his life in the plane, crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 which
crashed on January 31 2003, 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 Thirty million
United States Dollars only[$30,000.000.00] 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 50% of the total amount,50% will be for us.

PLEASE,TREAT THIS PROPOSAL AS TOP SECRET.
I look forward to your earliest reply .
Best Regards
Richard Morgan

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