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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: "BOARD CHAIRMAN ISHMAEL YAMSON" <scb_boardchairman_yamson@dr.com>
Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 12:03:25 +0100
Subject: PLEASE READ

Hello,
It is with greatest pleasure that this mail got to you, and I hope you are in good health and also you will not mind me sending you this without prior notice but in the cause of reading it you will see that it came with very good intensions.
First let me introduce myself to you formally, as you may be wondering who sent you this mail, my name is Mr. Ishmael and I am the financial controller of a very reputable financial house in Ghana and I also double as the board secretary to the company.
My main reason of getting in touch with you is that there is this platinum rated account which an investor (Dr. Billy ) from your country opened with our bank about 25 years ago and upon monitoring this account for several years I realize the account was dormant so I transferred it to unclaimed files hoping to hear something from the operator of his account, but for 6yrs now nothing or nobody has come forward so I decide to check what will make somebody deposit such an amount, oh sorry I didn’t bring in the amount earlier, it is twenty three million Eight hundred thousand us dollars ($23,800,000)this you will wonder how it will be sitting doing nothing in a bank for this long, so i setup my own investigations to give me some answers.
And lo and behold the owner of that account died of a severe cardio vascular disease two years after opening the account in his home country in your country where he went to prepare to come back and start his business in Ghana.
 I did some further checks and found out he never married and also did not disclose this account to anybody that is why it has been there for so long with no claim for it.
Now our bank has been waiting for any of the relatives to come-up for the claim but nobody has done that.
 I sincerely seek your consent to presenting you as the next of kin / Will Beneficiary to the deceased so that the proceeds of this account valued at $ 23,800,000 (twenty three million Eight hundred thousand dollars) can be paid to you, which we will share in these Percentages ratio, 70% to me and 30% to you.
All that I require from you is your sincere co-operation; trust and utmost confidentiality to enable us conducts this transaction successfully.
 I assured you that this transaction will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law both in your country and here in GHANA once the fund is transferred to your bank Account.
 Upon your consideration and acceptance of this offer, please proceed immediately and send to me the following information.
-Your Full Name,
-Your Contact Address
-Age &
-Your direct Mobile telephone Number.
Please let this deal be confidential.
Contact me via (corporateaffairs_gcb.gh@outlook.com)
Regards
Mr. Ishmael

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