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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: Davies Byron <daviesbyron05@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2017 13:29:44 +0100
Subject: REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP.


Friendly greetings to you

My name is Davies Byron from London UK. I am one of the executive bank
officers working with Barclays Bank PLC here in Carlisle Cumbria Branch,
(United Kingdom). I am contacting you for a very important and confidential
business transaction which I believe it will benefit both of us after
completion. I decided to write to you after a careful thought that you
might be capable of handling this top secret business transaction.

In 2007, a certain Artur Porter who has your country in his file as his
place of origin, made a fixed deposit of Eight Million Great British Pounds
(£8,000,000) with my bank for 36 months, including the 3 years interest. I
was his personal bank account officer for good 2 years before his sudden
death in 2009. The maturity date for this deposit contract was 14th of
September 2010. But, my Client Mr. Artur was among the death victims in the
September 2009 earthquake in Indonesia that left over 1,200 people dead
while he was there on a business trip.

Since the last quarter of 2010 until date, the management of my bank has
been finding means to reach him as to ascertain if he will roll over the
Deposit or have the contract sum withdrawn but without success. I contacted
the person he used as his Next of Kin who reliably informed me that Mr.
Porter is dead. When I inquired further, I discovered that the person used
as Next of Kin did not know of the deposited sum. I have been thinking of a
procedure to preserve this fund and use the proceeds for business. Some
directors here have been trying also to find out from me the information
about this account and the owner, but I decided to keep it to myself
because I know that if they become aware that my client is late without
beneficiary they will siphon the funds out for themselves.

Therefore, I am seeking your co-operation to present you as the one to
benefit from this fund at his death since you are from same Country with my
client, so that my bank headquarters will pay the funds to you and both of
us can make use of it. I wish to invest in Real Estate Business in your
Country but if you are not ready to partner with me with the money in the
real estate business, then we can share the money equally, including it's 3
years interest which the bank is going to transfer together to your bank
account. I have done enough feasibility studies and arrangement inside and
within the bank and we only have to put in your details into the
information network in the bank data system to officially qualify you as
the next of kin.

If you concur with this proposal, I intend to share it 50/50 with you upon
successful transfer into your account or we draft an agreement for
partnership in real exchange business.

Please keep this discourse as a top secret or delete it if you are not
interested at all.

I look forward to hear from you if interested.

Best regards,
Davies Byron
Barclays Bank PLC
English St, Carlisle,
Cumbria CA3 8JX,
United Kingdom

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