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: edward wood <edwardwood30kg@gmail.com>
Reply-To: edwardwood20kg@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 11 May 2015 08:54:26 +0000
Subject: Dear Sir/madam,

Dear Sir/madam,

Hello I send my greeting to you, i have been trying to reach you for
quite some time now for an important affair, this affair is a good
opportunity to become rich. We are about to possess a deceased funds,
this person has the same last name with you. Please in brief i am
Edward, I work at chartered Bank CI. I have a client who happen to be
your origin, he works with an oil servicing company, he died in the
Japan earthquake which resulted in a massive tsunami disaster and
Nuclear problem as you should please refer to this bbc report and
other news:- (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12709598).
Please be informed that he died along with his whole family. Since
then I have made several inquiries to locate any of his extended
relatives but has been unsuccessful after several unsuccessful
attempts, i figured that there is no body to come forth to claim his
funds. I decided to trace his last name over the internet, to see if I
could locate any member of his family hence I got your address thus
deem it necessary to contacted you. Since there is no one left or
available to inherit his estate left here at the bank, i deem it
preferable for you to come forth and inherit his funds based on the
fact that you have the same last name with the deceased as such you
are adequate to come forth. Please understand that the bank will have
to take a decision to transfer the fund to the Govt. treasury as the
law here stipulate. The deceased customer deposited the sum of Sixteen
Million united state dollars in fixed deposit at the bank here.

Now please understand that what is required is simple, you are to
apply to the bank as beneficiary / next of kin to the decease (our
customer). Upon your acceptance, I will send you an application letter
which you will forward to the bank. After the successful transfer of
the funds by the bank, we shall split the money 50/50 equally and all
expenses such as tax which your country will required from us shall be
taken care of by us from the total funds after the successful transfer
of the funds. I shall furnish you all information about the deceased,
so you have nothing to fear of worry about. Your assistance and
provision of an account suitable to receive the funds is highly
needed. You should please send me an email message for more
clarification if there is anything you do not understand before we
proceed.

All I require is your honest co-operation to enable us seeing this
deal through. I guarantee that this will be executed under all
legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the
law. In your response, I want you to give me your full names, address,
date of birth, telephone and occupation. Please If you are interested
and can handle this with me, contact me immediately with the requested
information, this is essential to prepare the letter i mentioned above
and for me knowing where to meet you to receive my part of the funds.
I shall be waiting to hear from you positively. Thanks.

Yours Faithfully,
Mr.Edward Wood

Anti-fraud resources: