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: "Barr Kwaminah Jones" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <barrkjones@outlook.com>
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 2016 01:23:15 -0000
Subject: Good day My friend

Barr. Kwaminah Jones

I am Barr. Kwaminah Jones, a legal practitioner at Kwaminah Jones & Associates,
Ghana. I have a deceased client, who died along side with his entire
family in the ongoing Boko haram insurgence since November 2013, in Nigeria,
I am one of his lawyer that help him to link his bank account in Ghana.
I saw your contact information and profile and decided that you could cooperate
with me on this proposition.


I am contacting you because I believe you can assume ownership of the
funds that was left in my deceased client's bank account. This fund is about to
be declared unserviceable by the bank as there is no indicated next of kin or
beneficiary to the account.


The total amount of cash in the said bank account is $12,500,000.00
USD (Twelve Million, Five Hundred Thousand United States dollars). The bank
issued to me a notification to contact the next of kin of my deceased client
who will either re-activate the bank account or make claim as beneficiary of
the funds. My proposition to you is to seek your consent, and to present your
kind self as the next-of-kin and beneficiary of my deceased client, since you
have the same last name with him as earlier said. This means that the proceeds
of his bank account would be paid to you as his next of kin and legitimate
beneficiary.


When the proceeds in his bank account are paid to you, we would share it on
a mutually agreed-upon percentage of 60% to me and 40% to your kind self.
Mind you, a month surcharge of 6% will be deducted from the total funds as
an escrow safe keeping fee of the bank account, so as to avoid the indefinite
closure of the bank account. All the legal documents to back up your claims
as my client's next-of-kin would be provided by me. The most important thing
I would need is your honest Cooperation in this proposition.


This would be done under a legitimate arrangement that would protect you
from any breach of the law.

Please kindly reject this offer by deleting the message if you are not interested.

Barr Kwaminah Jones.

Anti-fraud resources: