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: Akin Williams <free50@7t.dk>
Reply-To: <akinwilliam001@lawyer.com>
Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 09:30:08 -0700
Subject: RE: Pls. Treat As Urgent

I am Akin William, personal attorney to Mr. Charles L. Smith, an expatriate who used to work with Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC), here in Nigeria .On the 21st of December 2004 , he died in an auto mobile accident. Since then I have made several enquiries to locate any member of his family or extended relatives, but all my effort had proved unsuccessful. I decided to trace his relatives through Nigerian Chambers of Commerce and via the internet.

I am contacting you to seek for your consent/cooperation to present you as the Legitimate Next of Kin/Benficiary to my client Mr. Charles L Smith to make claim the money (USD12,500,000.00 (Twelve Million, Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) ) he deposited with his Bank before it is confiscated or declared unserviceable by the bank.

Another notice to provide his next-of- kin or have the account confiscated was issued to me. I therefore seek your consent to present you as the Next-of-kin to the deceased, The sharing ratio will be, 50 percent to me and 45 percent to you, while 5 percent should settle all expenses or tax paid.

All necessary legal documents that will be used to back up this inheritance claims will be processed by me. All I require is your honest co-operation to enable us see the deal through. I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law.

Yours faithfully,

Akin William

Anti-fraud resources: