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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: MR RICHARD AUSTIN <rich.aust13th@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2021 23:20:38 +0000
Subject: Re: OPPORTUNITY

Dear Friend,

I know that this mail will come to you as a surprise as we have never met
before. My name is Morgan Greene. I am the operations manager in FINANCIAL
SECURITY GROUP, VIRGINIA USA.

I hope that you will not expose or betray this trust and confidence that I
am about to repose on you for the mutual benefit of our both families.

I am writing in respect of a foreign customer of our company who perished
along with his next of kin with Korean AirLine, flight number 801 with the
whole passengers on 6th of august 1997 and for your perusal you can view
this site

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9708/06/guam.passenger.list/

Since the demise of this our customer, I personally has watched with keen
interest to see the next of kin but all has proved abortive as no one has
come to claim his funds of US$5.3M (Five Million Three Hundred Thousand
United States Dollars) which has been with our company for a very long time.

On this note, I decided to seek for whom his name shall be used as the Next
of Kin since there are no known relatives and funds are about to be moved
to US treasury as unclaimed funds after this period.

In view of this I got your contact through the internet as I was doing
research on a capable person to work with on this opportunity.

I have agreed that funds will be shared between us 60%/40% and I am 100%
sure of this.

If you are sure of your capability to handle this, get back to me so I can
direct you because we will need to prepare documentation fixing you as the
Next of Kin to the deceased and payment.

I will not fail to bring to your notice that this business is hitch free
and doesn't have any negative impact. You should not entertain any fear as
all modalities for the smooth and easy transfer of this fund have been
finalized, this transaction will be completed within 7 working days after
we commence.

Waiting for your urgent response and please kindly delete if you are not
interested.

Regards,

Richard Austin
FINANCIAL SECURITY GROUP
VIRGINIA BEACH, VA USA

Anti-fraud resources: