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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: "Akovu MARK" <lehmann.latac@gmail.com>
Reply-To: consult.markakovu@outlook.com
Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2016 01:39:23 -0500
Subject: Greetings

Ghazali, Akovu, Noor & Associates
10Th Floor, Wisma Tun Hussein Building
55/57 Jalan Tun Razak
50200, Cotonou
Benin.

Greetings,

Your e-mail address came up in a random draw conducted by our law firm,AKOVU MARK,Noor & Associates in Cotonou Rep du Benin .My name is AKOVU MARK. A personal attorney to the late Mr. Abdulrahman Abdel Mutalib who worked for an oil firm in Malaysia before his death. The late Mr. Abdulrahman Abdel Mutalib was a well known Philanthropist. Prior to his death, as his lawyer, I'm not only drafted his ''Will'' as was directed but he left the Will with our law firm and at the same time appointed us as the executioners of the Will. The total value of his Estate is Ten Million, Eight Hundred Thousand United States of America Dollars.{USD$10.8 Million} and 570kg of AU Gold bar.


The beneficiary of the Will as stated by our late client is deceased. Paragraph 3, page 11 of the Will had a clause in the Will which give us the express right to appoint a beneficiary by way of a balloting system should the beneficiary for any reason is deemed not to be of sound mind or through death be unable to inherit the Estate of our late client. As a result of the aforementioned, we have made a random draw and your e-mail address was picked as the beneficiary to this Will.

We have been directed by the bank to produce the beneficiary within a statutory time period of 3 weeks. Failure to do so, the Estate shall be transferred to the Government and have it credited to the government's treasury as mandated by law.

Upon taking custody of the funds, it is compulsory that you donate 60% of the total Estate value to charity. This is clearly stated in the Will by our late client while you retain 40% for yourself.

In fulfillment of the above,you are required to contact me immediately to start the process of transferring this Estate{funds} and Gold bars to any of your designated official bank account. I urge you to contact me immediately for further details bearing in mind that the bank has given us a time limit.

You can reply with the following information
Your full name:
Direct contact Phone :
Address: Mail addresses:

Kind Regards,
AKOVU MARK Esq.

Anti-fraud resources: