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: "Mr. Warren Buffett" <abubakarmaiga232@gmail.com>
Reply-To: wbre6046@gmail.com
Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2023 17:41:30 +0100
Subject: REQUEST FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE..

Attention my dearest,

I am Elaine Farrell, the personal attorney to the late Mr Steven
Vandersande , an American who was a consultant with Shell UK LTD in
London, who shall be referred to as my client. Unfortunately my client lost
his life on Boeing Egypt Air Flight 990, which crashed into the Atlantic
Ocean on October 31st, 1999 and left no clear beneficiary as Next of Kin
except some vital documents related to the deposit still with me.

All efforts by me to trace his Next of Kin proved abortive because he did
not make any will prior to his death. Since then I have made several
inquiries to locate any of my late clients' extended relatives and this has
proved unsuccessful. After my several unsuccessful attempts to locate any
member of his family hence I contacted you.

I am contacting you to assist in claiming the money left behind by my
client before they get confiscated or declared unclaimed by the security
company where this huge sum was deposited. Particularly, the finance
company where the deceased had the said fund valued at 15.5 M has issued
me a notice to provide the next of kin.

Consequent upon this, my idea is that we can have a deal/agreement and I am
going to do this legally with your name as the bonafide beneficiary of the
amount in question as I have all legal document to back our claim, I seek
your consent to present you as the next of kin to the deceased so that the
proceeds of this account valued at 15.5 M can be paid to your account
abroad. Note that this money will be 50/50 after deduction of any transfer
charges/expenditure we may incur in the cause of the transaction.

I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that
will protect you from any breach of the law, all I need from you is your
utmost collaboration and sincerity for us to thrive in this deal. Please
get back to me if you are ready to assist me and treat this matter with the
utmost confidentiality. I wait for your urgent response.

Mrs Elaine Farrell.
Phone: +372 5499 5636

Anti-fraud resources: