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: "Mr. Greyson Devin" <ismailmd273@gmail.com>
Reply-To: g_devin22@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2015 08:44:21 +0100
Subject: ATT::REPLY BACK.


LLOYD'S TSB BANK
P.O BOX 1000,
BX1 1LT ENGLAND,
UNITED KINGDOM.

My Name is Mr. Greyson Devin, I work with a private Bank here in London UK.
I want to introduce and negotiate with you a business opportunity that
exist in my office that will be of great benefit us all. Thus I wish to
transfer the sum of Ј75, Million Pounds from a dormant Bank account here.
Thus I would like to explain more to you on how this large amount of fund
originates.

I am a consulting auditor attached with a private Bank, I carry out various
banking Services with the bank. I am contacting you independently
concerning the outcome of our internal audit investigation which no other
one has been informed of this communication and I have decided to intimate
you with certain facts that I believe would be of interest to you.

I am contacting you concerning a customer of the bank who had an
investment placed under the banks management 13 years ago. On May 22/1999.
He is an American accountant/consultant on Oil matters of Saudi Arabia,
Late Eng Micheal David Woodson 65 years old then, he made an investment
deposit valued at Ј52.2 Million Pounds in this bank, which he wished to
have us turn over on his behalf.

I was the officer assigned to his case; I made numerous suggestions in
line with my duties as the de-facto chief operations officer and a
consulting investment auditor of the Private Banking Services Department,
especially given the volume of funds he wished to put into our bank. We
met on numerous occasions prior to any investments being placed. I
encouraged him to consider various growth funds with prime ratings.

The favoured route in my advice to customers is to start by assessing data
on 600 traditional stocks and bonds managers and alternative investments.
Based on my advice, we spun the money around various opportunities and
made attractive margins for our first year of operation, the accrued
profit and interest stood at this point at over Ј65.5 Million, this
margin was not the full potential of the fund but he desired low risk
guaranteed returns on investments.

In August 2001, he asked that the money be liquidated because he needed to
make an urgent investment requiring cash payments in Europe. He directed
that I liquidate the funds and had it deposited with HANDELSBANKEN, a top
Swedish bank. I informed him that our bank would have to make special
arrangements to have this done and in order not to circumvent due process,
the bank would have to make a 9.5% deduction from the funds to cater for
banking and statutory charges. He complained about the charges but later
came around when I explained to him the complexities of the task he was
asking of us.

I contacted my affiliate in Sweden, however, the exercise was not carried
out due to the complex nature of the task and having been instructed again
to stop further proceeding, in line with his instructions the transfer was
stopped.He told me he would use the money thereafter upon his return from
America later that week. This was the last communication we had, this
transpired around Jun 5, 2003, Four days later, information started to
trickle in, that he died in a plane crash.

On hearing about this information, the bank immediately launched an
investigation into possible surviving next of kin to alert about the
situation and also to come forward to claim his deposit. In his bio-data
form, he listed no next of kin. In the field of private banking, opening
an account means no one will know of its existence, accounts are rarely
held under a name; depositors use numbers and codes to make the accounts
anonymous.

As things stands now, there is Ј75, Million Pounds as value for his
investment. The bank has no single idea of what's the history or nature of
the deposit. They are simply awaiting instructions to release the deposit
to any party that comes forward. This is the situation. This bank has
spent great amounts of money trying to track this man's family; they have
investigated for 10 Months now and have found no known relative. The
investigation has already come to an end.

I am prepared to place you in a position and instruct the bank to release
the deposit to you as the closest surviving relation. Upon receipt of the
deposit, I am prepared to share the money with you and no more. That is,
we share the proceeds 60% for me and 40% for you. We can fine-tune this
based on our interactions and with my position/affiliate in the bank, we
can get things done in a smooth way. There is a reward for this project
and it is a task well worth undertaking. I will like to invest 50% of my
shear in your Country with your help/idea.

I have evaluated the risks and the only risk I have here is from you
refusing to work with me and alerting the bank. I send you this mail not
without a measure of fear as to what the consequences might be, but I know
within me that nothing ventured is nothing gained and that success and
riches never come easy or on a platter of gold. This is the one truth I
have learned from my private banking clients. Do not betray my confidence.

So you should urgently get back to me to discuss this further, if you know
you will be capable of handling this risk free transaction. Send me your
personal telephone numbers for easy communications.

Please email me back on this mail address:(pinprivate445@yahoo.com.hk)

I wait to hear from you ASAP.

Regards,

Mr. Greyson Devin

Anti-fraud resources: