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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: michael james <michael_james0002@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <k.cmattew2000@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2015 14:27:40 +0000
Subject: URGENT


Dear

My Name is MICHAEL JAMES,a credit officer with one of the leading (Finance Trust House) here in Africa. In my department I discovered an abandoned funds $15.5m in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer who died as a result of cardiac arrest.

Due to his intricate family background I was unable to locate any of his family members.
Since then I have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines and laws but unfortunately No one showed up till
the date.

It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and we don't want this money to go into the bank treasury as unclaimed bill.

The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed after 12 years, the money will be transferred into the bank treasury as unclaimed fund by ending of next month the money will be 12 years dormant in account. The request of foreigner as Next
of kin in this business is, occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and an Indigent cannot stand as next of kin to a Foreigner.

Your percentage will be declared to you as soon as you indicate your Interest.
I will visit your country for disbursement according to the Percentage indicated.

Therefore, to enable the immediate move of this Fund to you arranged,
you must apply first to the bank as relation or next of kin of the deceased indicating.

1. Your full name and address
2. Your telephone number for easy communication.
3. Your Age and occupation.

Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by email the text of the application. I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch-free and that you should not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made for the movement
of the money. I anxiously wait to hear from you. Please kindly reply to this email address

Yours Faithfully,

MICHAEL JAMES
TELLE +2348161614099

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