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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: "SUNTRUST BANK UNITED STATES" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <us.suntrustbank@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 7 Oct 2017 11:46:53 -0700
Subject: IMPORTANT NOTIFICATION

SUNTRUST BANK
Baltimore Main Office
120 E Baltimore St.
Baltimore, MD 21202
United States
Tel: 410-986-1540
 
 
 
Dear Friend,
 
 
I hope you are doing fine.
 
 
I am John Douglas,I work as the Auditor/Senior Accountant  with the Suntrust Bank Baltimore Main
Office United States.
 
 
I wish to introduce you to a business deal I have in our bank right now.
 
 
I wish to place your name as the beneficiary of US$15,000,000.00(Fifteen Million United States
Dollars) only due to the death of the depositor who died years ago along with his family.
 
 
I have audited the account and no one stands as a next of kin after the dead of the customer.
 
 
The bank will soon divert it to their personal treasury as unclaimed funds  if no one stands to claim
the funds.
 
 
I will not like the funds to go that way hence with my position in this bank and the only person that
knows about these funds in the bank as the auditor/account, I want to transfer it out of the bank.
 
 
I want us to do this deal together and have theses funds and share it 40% for you, 50% for me and
10% to reimburse ourselves in case of any expenses we may incur in the process of this
transaction.
 
 
However, i assure you that this transaction will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will
protect you from any breach of the law once the funds is transferred to your bank account.
 
 
The funds I am referring to is right here in this bank floating in suspense account, therefore
I solicit that you be in collaboration with me to have this done, it will be transferred into an account
you will provide any where in the world.
 
 
I will need you to provide the following information urgently to enable the attorney start the processing of  all the relevant legal documents for the fund remittance.
 
1) Name:
2) Address:
3) Tel:
4) Age:
5) Sex:
6) Occupation Status:
7)Bank information
 
 
I await your prompt response.
 
 
You can also contact me with the below email address:
 
 
EMAIL:   suntrustbank.suntrustbank@gmail.com
 
 
Yours Faithfully,
 
 
JOHN DOUGLAS
Auditor/Senior Accountant
Suntrust Bank, Baltimore Main Office
United States

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