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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: Eric Kosivi <erickosivi1@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 20:45:51 +0000
Subject: Goodday

Compliments of the day to you.

I am Barrister Eric KOSIVI ;a legal practitioner. My client who worked
with CIMTOGO, a cement company in my country Togo as an independent
contractor and was killed with his entire family in a fatal
accident,sparing none of their lives, some years ago.

Before his death, I assisted him in the deposit of some funds worth
$USD 13.5 Million with a Bank in Togo for safekeeping. The funds have
remained unclaimed since his death, and such unclaimed funds are
appropriated and returned to the treasury as a matter of policy.

Considering the lack of success in my bid to locate any of his
relatives for over a year now, I hereby solicit your consent to enable
me present you as the Next of Kin to my deceased client. I am
contacting you for two reasons.

Firstly, you both have the same last name, which makes the claim most
credible. Secondly, I strongly believe that the Bank does not deserve
to inherit the funds, these reasons led to my resolve to claim the
funds that were why I contacted you, with your permission; I will
proceed to establish you as the next of kin/Beneficiary to my late client.

I purposely, do not want to mention his name in this first letter I am
sending you in other to avoid falsification of relative identity.

As such, I would want you to furnish me with the following information
to be sure I am not mistaken which will assist me in this claim,

1) Your Full name: ……………………………
2) Current house address / office address: ……………………
3) Your Nationality: …………………………
4) Your Occupation: ………………
5) Your Age: …………………………
6) Marital Status: ……………………
7) Your direct mobile phone number and direct fax number: ………………


You could as well send me a scanned copy of any of your identity
card,passport or drivers license to clear my doubts.

Therefore, on receipt of your positive response, I will give you more
clarification on the transaction and we shall then discuss the sharing
ratio of modalities for transfer.

Reply me back via my private email address: (erickosivi1@hotmail.com)

Yours, Sincerely

Barrister Eric Kosivi

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