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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: "Ben Mathews" <finassetmgt@onet.pl>
Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2018 03:17:24 -0600
Subject: IMMIDIATE MUTUAL CONCERN


Dear Confidant,

I am Ben Mathews, Group Company Secretary at DBS bank, Hongkong and do sincerely hope that you receive this mail in good faith and good health. I would respectfully request that you keep the contents of this mail to yourself and respect the integrity of the information. I am contacting you based on an inheritance for the sum of Fifteen Million, five hundred thousand dollars that you might be interested in otherwise this reasonable amount of money will be forfeited to the HK Government for charitable use. I got your contact from the H.K. Chambers of Commerce and decided to contact you for this mutually beneficial transaction. I, Ben Mathews and the Registrar of a H.K. Probate Division, intends to bridge the Sum of US$15,500.000.00 (Fifteen Million, Five Hundred Thousand Dollars) in a private account deposited at my bank meant to be forfeited to mortmain and other charitable uses due to lack of beneficiary claim for 10 years after the account holder died intestate.
As civil servants whom are highly placed but poorly paid, we want to bridge these funds to a trustworthy person for foreign investments to secure our retirement and the future of our families. The modality for the bridging of the funds to you is secured and 100% safe especially as we are still in active service.
For your investment assistance, you will receive 30% of the $15.5 million, 60% will be invested on our behalf in ventures such as Agriculture or Real Estate while the balance 10% will go to charity for the less privileged in society.
If however you are not interested, kindly destroy this mail because we are still in active service.However if you feel we can work together on this, please respond only to this email: gcoleman364@yahoo.com Only on receipt of your email here will i know you are serious for us to run this together

Yours Truly,
Ben Mathews


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