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: EFR <fidelitybank@fidelity-bk.tk>
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 15:32:48 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: Your reply is needed quickly



A message was sent to you before through my other email address, but I guess you did not get it.
I am a senior management staff of Fidelity Bank, Ghana, and I would like to propose a business offer to you. There is a dormant account in our bank whose holder is late for quite a long time, just the same as the next of kin. No family or business partner has ever showed up for years to claim the amount, which shows that no one knows that he has such money in our bank. He was a politician, this means the funds must have been a stolen money from the government (you know how it is done in Africa, "National Cake, government officials must eat from it") which shows that no one is aware of it.
Not to lunch into this long story, this is what I want you to help me do: If you accept to work with me, I will present you as the partner (automatic beneficiary) to the deceased, and you will claim this large sum, it's a lot of money in USD. I will disclose the amount to you as soon as you unveil your interest.
Aren't you asking how could this be possible? Don't stress your mind over that, I have spent years in the system, I will surely handle all that without you being questioned.  I will lay the way for every document to point at you as the partner who is therefore automatically the beneficiary of the funds.
Here is my offer, you will have a robust share of the funds when it is claimed into your account. 
Indicate your interest by sending me the following information about you:
Your full name: .............Your country of residence: ..............Your personal phone number: ..............Your gender: ............Your occupation: .........
I will wait to receive this information from you to show that you are interested, then I will furnish you with the detail, how much we are talking about here and what your percentage will be.

Aleck Thomas

Anti-fraud resources: