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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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Fraud email example:

From: "michael boateng" <m_boateng2@hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 17 Sep 2005 15:12:11 +0100
Subject: INFORMATION

Dear,
It is with great honour and priviledge that I write you.I am Mr.Michael
Boateng,a 34- years old bank staff of the treasury department,UNION BANK
NIGERIA which is one of NIGERIAS leading retail bank with over 30 branches
scattered across Nigeria.I humbly solicit for your
confidentiality in what I have to tell you as my good findout in my
department.
Every five years,Nigerian banks transfer to its treasury millions of dollars
of unclaimed deceased depositors funds in compliance with the banking laws
and guidelines, in majority of cases with reference to all retail banks in
Ghana, the money normally runs into several millions of dollars.A national
of your country,LATE MR.HERBERT THURSTON,a Gold merchant/contractor with
Nigeria Trade and Investment Coporation who had a permanent resident permit
in
Nigeria until his death in October 2003 as a result of his diagnosed
cancer.He
had a closing balance of Nine million USD ($9,000,000).Since his death,the
bank has been expecting a next of kin to him to come and claim his money in
the bank but up till this time of writing no next-of-kin or relative of the
deceased has come forward to claim his money with us.Thus,I bent on
searching through the internet to see if I could locate any of the
deceased relatives and on one of such searches,I saw your email address and
I
decided to seek your consent to act as next of kin to the deceased.
However,as an insider,I will guide you on how you proceed to enable you
claim the money as your inheritance fund and it will be transferred into
your account.The request for you as Relative/next of kin in this transaction
is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a Nigerian
cannot stand in as Relative to a foreigner.Please you must be confident in
your correspondences with the bank director in charge of foreign remittance
as things progress.
On the comfirmation of the money in your bank account,I shall proceed on my
annual leave to enable me procure a visa to visit you in your country to
collect my own share of the money which I will invest in a profitable
business venture in your country and I will rely on your advice.
Regards
Michael Boateng

_________________________________________________________________
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