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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: Matthew Candle <mattcandle1@gmail.com>
Reply-To: mattcandle@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, 05 Aug 2015 06:08:18 +1200
Subject: REPLY



--
From Mr Matthew Candle

I beg your excuse for the inconveniences this mail may cause to you. I
am Mr. Matthew Candle a Banker and accountant with
our bank here in Abidjan. I am the personal accounts manager to one of
our clients, a National of your country, who owned
a construction company here in Ivory Coast (Cote D'Ivoire).

My client, his wife, and their three children were involved in the ill
fated Kenya Airways crash in the coasts of Abidjan
in January 2006 in which all passengers on board died. Since then I have
made several inquiries to your embassy to locate
any of my clients extended relatives but has been unsuccessful.

After several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to trace his relation
over the Internet, but still unsuccessful, so I
decided to contact you. My particular interest is this huge deposit with
our bank here where the deceased has an account
valued at about ($16.5, million US dollars). They have issued me a
notice to provide the next of kin or the bank will
declare the account unserviceable and thereby send the funds to the bank
treasury.

Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for some years
now, I will seek your consent to present you as
the next of kin of the deceased, so that the proceeds of this account
valued at ($16.5,million US dollars) can be paid to
you and then you and I can share the money 50 / 50

All I require is your honest cooperation to enable us see 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 reply mail, I want you to give me
your full names, address, date of birth, telephone and fax numbers If
you can handle this with me.

Thanking you for your anticipated cooperation.

Best Regards
Mr. Matthew Candle.

Anti-fraud resources: