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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: Walter Viva <janebenson49@gmail.com>
Reply-To: walterqviva@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 02:04:44 +0100
Subject: HOW ARE YOU TODAY

Barrister Walter Viva Legal Practitioner & Financial Solicitor

{SENIOR ADVOCATE}


3400 Fairview Street, Suite 400
Burlington, Ontario Canada.


BENEFICIARY SETTLEMENT REF NUMBER US/ 0044

DEAR,

Firstly, I must solicit your confidence in this transaction; this is by
virtue of its nature as being utterly personal and private. Though I
know that a transaction of this magnitude will make any one apprehensive
and worried, but I am assuring you that all will be well at the end of
the day. Let me start by first introducing myself properly to you. It
may surprise you receiving this letter from me, since there was no
previous correspondence between us. My name is Barr Walter Viva. Esq.
The personal Attorney to Late JAMES.

My purpose of contacting you is for you to help secure the funds left
behind by my late client, to avoid it being confiscated Or declared
unserviceable by the Bank Where this fund valued 14,800,000.00(Fourteen
Million Eight hundred
thousand USD Only)Deposited by JAMES, before his death, who lived in
Canada for over a decade before his Dad, he died long with his entire
family members a few years ago.

The Bank has issued me a notice to contact the beneficiary or the
account will be declared unserviceable and the fund diverted To the Bank
treasury, So far all my efforts to get a hold of someone related to
James has proved abortive. Hence, I have Contacted you. I am actually
asking for your consent to present you to the Bank as the Next of
Kin/beneficiary of my late client's Fund, since you have the same last
name, so that the proceeds of this account can be paid to your account.

All the legal documentations and information to back up your claim as my
client's Next of Kin I shall provide them. All I require is your honest
cooperation to enable us achieve this transaction, there will be no
blood test or any need for
you to appear in the court, it is 100% risk free and legal.

I wish to point out that I want 20% of this money to be shared among the
charity Organizations, while the remaining 80% is shared equally between
us. This proposition is entirely risk free. I will use my position as
the client’s attorney to guarantee the successful execution of this
transaction.

If you are interested, kindly reconfirm your complete contact
information, your complete names, complete mailing address, phone and
fax number, for more details and procedures of the settlement,We shall
use fax machine or email address in order to process your settlement.i
will provide to you both my direct..Fax and tel-phone line as soon as
your interested to proceed with me.

Upon your response, I shall then provide you with more details and
relevant information that will help you understand this transaction as
well. The intended transaction will be executed under a legitimate
arrangement that will protect you
from any infraction of the law. However, if this business proposition
offends your moral ethics, do accept my sincere apology. If on the
contrary you wish to achieve this goal with me, kindly get back to me
with your interest for further
explanation.

Yours Truly,
Barr Walter Viva
Attorney at Law

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