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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. Elmer Ray" <y0@hyu78.onmicrosoft.com>
Reply-To: <elmerray44@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2016 13:35:29 +0000
Subject: REPLY.

Sir,

My name is Mr. Elmer Ray from United Kingdom. I am an Auditor by profession and during our audition with one bank here in United Kingdom I discovered some funds belonging to one Mr. LIANG LI (foreigner) who is an Engineer with Beijing Yanhua Petrochemical Co. Ltd, United Kingdom here and when I asked the Remittance Manager of the Bank what is the reason why Mr. LIANG LI’s account was dormant, he told me that Mr. LIANG LI is dead and they have tried all their possible best to reach any of his relatives but it proofs abortive and now the policy in banking system is that when an account has been dormant for so long and nobody comes for it by depositing or withdrawing, then, such account has to be freeze and redirected the money in the account to government treasury because they saw no Next of Kin in his entire file within the bank and his account has been dormant for years which is against the policy of the Bank.

Now, I am contacting you because of the need to involve a foreigner as the foreign beneficiary to that fund if you will be interested to work with me and claim this fund instead of allowing the Bank to redirect the fund to the British Government Treasury. In fact, I will give you more details of the transaction if you declare your interest by replying back to me and I will tell you how the money will be shared among us because I have an insider who is the Remittance Manager of the Bank who is involved and she promised to perfect everything once I get a trustworthy and God fearing foreigner who is interested to work with us and achieve the goal.

Thanks and I wish to have a long and profitable relationship with you!

Best Regards,

Mr. Elmer Ray.

Anti-fraud resources: