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.

 

 

Fraud email example:

From: nicolas@pnetmail.co.za
Date: Thu, 02 Jun 2005 01:04:15 +0200
Subject: ENERGY MATTERS


FROM THE DESK OF Mr. Nicolas Koma
EMAIL:nicolas@pnetmail.co.za

ATTN: THE MANAGING DIRECTOR

It is my great pleasure to write you this letter on
behalf of my colleagues. I got your information from a
colleague in the chamber of commerce in my country
while searching for a reliable partner to assist in
this proposal. I have decided to seek a confidential
co-operation with you in the execution of a deal
hereunder for the benefit of all parties, and hope you
will keep it confidential because of the nature of
this business.
Within the Department of Mining Resources where I work
as the Director of Project implementation, with
co-operation of two other top officials, we have in
our possession, an overdue payment in US funds. The
said funds represent certain percentage of the
contract value executed on behalf of my Ministry by a
foreign contracting firm, which we the officials
over-invoiced to the amount of Twenty-Six Million Five Hundred Thousand United
States Dollars. Though the actual contract cost has
been paid to the original contractor, leaving the
excess balance unclaimed.
The Government of the Republic of South Africa
believes that private investment in general, and
foreign direct investment in particular, are the real
engines for sustainable economic development, for
which reason it has continued to encouraged investment
in the key growth-oriented sector of Mining with
sincere determination to pay foreign contractors all
debts owed to them, so as to continue to enjoy close
relationship, and mutually beneficial co-operation
with foreign governments and non-governmental
financial agencies. As a result we included our bills
for approvals with the co-operation of some officials
at the Department of Finance and the Reserve Bank of
South Africa (RBSA).
We are seeking your assistance to be the beneficiary
of the unclaimed funds, since we are not allowed to
operate foreignaccount. The changing of beneficiary's
information/ details and other forms of documentation
upon application for claim to reflect the contract
money and its approvals will be secured on behalf of
your company or your self.
I have the authority of my colleagues involved to
propose that, should you be willing to assist us in
this transaction your share as compensation will be
Twenty percent while my colleagues and I shall receive seventy percent, and
the balance of Ten percent shall be used to reimburse all
expenditures, taxes and miscellaneous expenses so
incurred. It does not matter whether or not your
company does contract projects of the nature described
here. The assumption is that your company won the
major contract and subcontracted it to other
companies. More often than not, big trading companies
and firms of unrelated fields win major contracts, and
subcontract to more specialized firms for execution.
This business itself is Hundred percent safe, provided you treat
it with utmost confidentiality. Also your
specialization is not a hindrance to the successful
execution of this mutually beneficial transaction.
Please kindly notify me for further details if you are
interested or not in this proposal by contacting me
through this email address: nicolas@pnetmail.co.za.
Regards,
Mr. Nicolas Koma.



Anti-fraud resources: