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: femijohnson@lycos.it
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 05:09:56 PST
Subject: CONFIRM RECEIPT ASAP.

FROM THE DESK OF MR JOHNSON EMI.
FOREIGN OPERATIONS MANAGER,
MERCHANT BANK OF AFRICA (MBA)
HEADQUARTERS,
214, TINUBU SQUARE-LAGOS

EMAIL: femi-johnson1@myway.com

Dear Friend,

I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance
department of MERCHANT BANK OF AFRICA (M.B.A) here in Nigeria. In my
department we discovered an abandoned sum of US$17M dollars (Seventeen
Million US dollars) in an account that belongs to one of our
foreign customer (MR. ANDREAS SCHRANNER from Munich, Germany)who worked
with Shell Development Nigeria and died while on holiday in Germany
with his entire family in July 2000 in a plane crash.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm

Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his
next of kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release
it unless some body applies for it as next of kin or relation to the
deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines and laws but
unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next of kin or relation
died alongside with him at the plane crash leaving nobody behind for
the claim. It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to
make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the
next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent
disbursement since nobody is coming for it and we don't want this money
to go into the bank treasury as unclaimed bill.

The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that if such money
remained unclaimed after fours years, the money will be transferred
into the bank treasury as unclaimed fund. The request of a foreigner as
next of kin in this business is occasioned by the fact that the
customer was a foreigner.

I agree that 40% of this money will be for you as a respect for the
provision of a foreign account, 10% will be set aside for expenses
incurred during the business and 50% would be for me. Thereafter, I
will visit your country for disbursement according to the percentage
indicated. To enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you
arranged.

You must apply first to the bank as relation or next of kin of the
deceased indicating your,permanenr address and private telephone and fax
number for easy and effective communication and location where the money
will be remitted.

Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email the text
of the application. I will not fail to bring to your notice this
transaction is hitch-free and that you should not entertain any atom of
fear as all required arrangements have been made for the transfer. You
should contactme immediately you receive this letter.


Reply strictlt to: femi-johnson1@myway.com

Trusting to hear from you immediately.

Yours Faithfully,

MR JOHNSON EMI.





---------------------------------------------------------
Get your FREE E-mail account at http://www.eseenet.com !

Anti-fraud resources: