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: "FERNANDO VINGUT" (may be fake)
Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2018 00:24:38 +0200
Subject: Barrister: Fernando V.

Dearest in Mind,
You may be surprise receiving this email from me, Please bear with me and read till the end of this email. My name is Barr. Barr.Fernando Vingut, I am the private attorney to late client,an oil tycoon and philanthropist who suddenly died in a ghastly motor accident. I was recommended by your country public directory to search to locate any of my deceased client's family members, after all efforts made to locate his relatives have failed.
 
Before his untimely death, he deposited into his personal bank account the total sum of Eighteen Million Two Hundred Thousand US Dollars, with a financial firm here in Spain. Most importantly, I have been severally requested to present the heir/next of kin to the deceased client, to apply for payment, else the funds will be diverted to the Government Treasury Account as forfeited deposit.
For this purpose, I seek your permission to permit me to present you to the bank as the heir to my late client, as both of you bears the same surname, so that the deposited funds will be legally released to you, before the government automatically possesses the money as unclaimed funds.
The transaction will be executed under a legal arrangement that will protect you from any infraction of the law, in case you are not biologically connected to the deceased. All I need is your sincere cooperation to enable us retrieve the funds successfully. I wish to clearly state that 20% of this money will be donated to any charity organizations of our choice, while the remaining 80% is shared equally between us.
 
However, do accept my sincere apology if by any means this email offends your moral ethics, perhaps, kindly get back to me for further explanation if you are interested. Please send me the following information to enable me commence the legal
process;
 
 
1)Your full name
2)Your Date of Birth
4)Current Occupation
5)Telephone Number
The Court will require them in the documents we need it for this claim, Thanks for your understanding and cooperation as I expect your urgent response,contant at Private E-mail: (vingut7@gmail.com) more details/information to claim this funds.
Kind Regards
Barrister: Fernando Vingut

Anti-fraud resources: