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: "John Cullen" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <john_cullen197525@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2018 09:52:04 -0700
Subject: Re: partner with me

Hello,


I am John Cullen and I am a private banker to a client who is now deceased. He fixed a deposit of £7.5 million with my bank for a contract period of 72 months. The due date for this contract is in August, but unfortunately my client passed away last January with no heir.


Since then, I have been covering up his death because I do not want my bank management to find out about his death, because they will swiftly divert this fortune to themselves if they ever learn that my client died with no heir. He was a friend and I brought him into my bank as a client, that is why I cannot standby and do nothing.


These past five months I have been looking for a means or rather someone to partner with to be able handle the situation, which is why I have contacted you. I wish to solicit for your partnership and assistance, this account is under my management and with your concert I can run an account update, put you on record as my client's distant relative and finally present you as the sole heir to the fortune. After which we can claim the fortune, and with it, we can do some good work and touch so many lives through charities.


Nonetheless, I want you to know that things may not be as easy as it sounds in this message, but if you accept my partnership it will worth your while when we are done, because you are going to walk away with 40% of the fortune and for your information, no laws will be broken for the sake of claiming this fortune, because we are going to do this through legal means.


This is your chance to do some good and touch lives, so reply with your phone number if you are interested, or delete this message if you are not. Thank you for your time, and I do hope that you reply.


Kind regards,
John

Anti-fraud resources: