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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: DON ANTONIO SANCHEZ VICARIO <don.antonios2015@gmail.com>
Reply-To: DON ANTONIO SANCHEZ VICARIO <don.antonios2015@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2015 04:27:31 +0900 (JST)
Subject: GOOD DAY MY FRIEND


Dear Friend,
 
I am Don. Antonio Sanchez
Vicario, a member of board of directors also act as manager bills and exchange
at the foreign remittance department of LA CAIXA BANK here in Madrid, Spain. I
prayed before contacting you, please for God sake do not see my mail as
embarrassment as we do not know each other. I have a business proposal which I
believe that it will be a very Good opportunity for both of us. So I decided to
contact you on this business opportunity in our bank. The business is this, I
discovered an abandoned sum of, $9,300,000.00 (NINE MILLION THREE HUNDRED
THOUSAND US DOLLARS) in our safety deposit vault that belongs to one of your
country national who died along with his entire family in a car accident on the
Barcelona Highway Spain in December 2010. This prominent customer of our bank
happens to share the same Family name with you. 
  
Since we got the information
about his death, we have been expecting any of his relative to come over and
claim his money because the management would not release it unless somebody
applies for it as next of kin to the deceased as indicated in our banking
guidelines but unfortunately, I learnt that all his family died alongside with
him at the motor accident leaving nobody behind for the claim. 
  
Since you have the same
surname with this deceased customer, you can easily make this deal with me; I
will give you all the secret information of this deposit which will help you to
claim this money as the next of kin. it is therefore upon this discovery that I
decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you
as the next of kin to the deceased since nobody is coming for it  and I
don’t want this money to go into the banks treasury as unclaimed funds or
declared to the government of Spain, once this is done, the government of Spain
will confiscate the funds, which is not good for both of us instead its better
for us to do the deal and map out something for charity from the money and
share the rest.
  
I agree that 50% of this money
will be for you as a foreign partner in respect of your acceptance to do this
business with me, 10% will go for charity homes and refugees and while the
remaining  40 % would be for me and my family. 
  
Therefore to enable the
immediate transfer of this fund to your account as arranged, you must apply
first to the bank as the next of kin of the deceased indicating your interest
of claim of your inherited funds. Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to
you the text of the application which you will email or fax to the bank. I will
not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is a risk free that you
should not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been
made perfectly me. 
 
Do not betray my confidence.
If we can be of one accord, we should act swiftly on this. Please get back to
me as soon as possible with your details as:
 
FULL
NAMES:..................................................
ADDRESS:.......................................................
AGE OR DATE OF BIRTH:..........................................
PASSPORT OR ANY ID THAT BEAR
YOUR NAME: ..
POSITION:.................................................... 
COUNTRY OF
ORIGIN:............................................. 
COUNTRY OF
RESIDENT:...........................................
PHONE/MOBILE NUMBER AND FAX
NUMBERS:.........................................
CONTACT EMAIL:…………………………………..
 
You should understand that
this should be kept very confidential, let it be between me and you. This is
the only way we can achieve success.  I will level up the whole
arrangement here in the bank for the transfer to be approved immediately and
released to you.
       
                     
                     
                     
  
I wait urgently for your reply
 
Best Regard,
 
Don Antonio Sánchez Vicario

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