joewein.net   joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days
  jwSpamSpy

Home
About Us
Spam
419/Nigeria
Fraud
Contact

"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: "John Chan JP" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mailjohnchanjp@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2015 12:30:03 +0200
Subject: YOUR URGENT RESPONSE IS NEEDED!

Hello,
I am Dr. John Chan {JP} a director with Hang Seng Bank Limited here in Hong-Kong and I have a good and profitable business proposal for you.
One of our client who unfortunately is now deceased had a fixed deposit of the sum of US $ 20,500,000 Twenty Million Five Hundred thousand united state dollars with our bank and he died intestate {without a will} and all of our efforts to trace any of his living relative has proved abortive as he was childless and he died with his wife.
By virtue of my status within bank and the Hong-Kong society in general, i can not transfer this money to myself / personal account, hence i am seeking your total co-operation for you to work with me and my partners towards ensuring the safe transfer of this money into your bank account for sharing or investment purposes.
Upon the successful completion of this business transaction, you will be entitled to 30% of the transferred amount while my partners and i will go home with the remainder 70%.
For now i need the following information from you viz: -
-Your Full Names
-Contact Street address in full
-Private Phone numbers
-Your Age
-Your Profession {what you do for a living}
I will oblige you more detailed information of this business offer and also send to you the data pages of my international passport and bank ID in my next e-mail correspondence Please do reply to my private E-mail: - mailjohnchanjp@yahoo.com.hk
Meanwhile, you are required to keep this business offer STRICTLY private and CONFIDENTIAL too, as i wait your positive immediate reply as soon as possible.
I thank you.
Kind Regards
Dr. John CCChan.JP
Hang Seng Bank Limited
Hong-Kong SAR

Anti-fraud resources: