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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: Christopher Sotnick <contactstev1@gmail.com>
Reply-To: chrisrsotnick@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2015 13:42:05 -0700
Subject: DEAR FRIEND


Attention to you,

I am Christopher Sotnick, the personal attorney to Robert Fitzpatrick, an American who was a consultant with Shell LTD here in Durban, who shall be referred to as my client. Unfortunately my client lost his life on Boeing Egypt Air Flight 990, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on October 31st, 1999 (http://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/nov/02/egyptaircrash.usa4) and left no clear beneficiary as Next of Kin except some vital documents related to the deposit still with me.

All efforts by me to trace his Next of Kin proved abortive because he did not make any will prior to his death. Since then I have made several Inquiries to locate any of my late clients extended relatives and this has proved unsuccessful. After my several unsuccessful attempts to locate any member of his family hence I contacted you. I am contacting you to assist in claiming the money left behind by my client before they get confiscated or declared unclaimed by the security company where this huge deposit was deposited. Particularly, the finance company where the deceased had the said fund valued at US$5.5 million dollars has issued me a notice to provide the next of Kin.

Consequent upon this, my idea is that we can have a deal / agreement and I am going to do this legally with your name as the beneficiary of the bonafide Amount in question as I have legal document to back our all claim, I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin to the deceased so that the proceeds of this account valued at ($5.500.000.00) Five Million, Five hundred thousand US dollars can be paid to your account abroad, note that 40% of this money will be for you, in respect to the provision of a foreign account and 50% for me, 10% will be used for the reimbursement of any expenditure we may incur in the cause of the transaction.

I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law; all I need from you is your utmost collaboration and sincerity for us to thrive in this deal. Get back to me if you are ready to assist me.

Kindly provide me with your

FULL NAME
CONTACT ADDRESS
TELEPHONE AND FAX

Yours Sincerely,

Christopher Sotnick.
Tel: (+27) 771 030 8564

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