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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: "Mr.Robert Amoah" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <robertamoah45@aol.com>
Date: Sun, 9 Aug 2015 13:53:21 -0700
Subject: VERY URGENT REPLY NEEDED.

Dear Friend,

This is Robert Amoah, I was working with Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) till my retirement 3 years ago. I am a widowa with 4 kids, my husband died last year.

I was in my home few days ago a call came from my formal Bank demanding my urgent attention on this matter. I was a personal accountant of a foreign business merchant for 2 to 3years before his death. He has this deposit of $20M with our Bank unclaimed till this time of audit. As his personal account officer, a mandated was given to me to provide any of his relatives for the claim or the funds will be confiscated by the Bank.

Since then, I have being thinking on what to do since I do not know any of his relative since he left no one as his next of kin and I never let the Bank know about this but have assured them that I will provide the relative in a shortest time while thinking on what to do until now that I have remembered to see if I could get a foreign partner who will agree with me claim this fund as the next of kin to my late client so that I will present him to the Bank for forward claim of this fund into his account for our benefits, this why I have contacted you to seek for your cooperation.

As it stands now, I am not greedy and do not need too much money but needed that amount that will make me comfortable and have my children receive good education in overseas.

If you can assure me that you can handle this transaction perfectly, I will do everything to stand by you until this fund is successfully transferred into your account so that as soon as you have received into your account, you will give me only 30% of the fund and also help me and children get visa to your country to settle there.

If you will agree to work with me, I will not wait to front you as the next of kin to my late client before the Bank to have the fund released into your account without any delay.

I wait your urgent reply.

Regards,
Robert Amoah.

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