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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 Paul Masinga <mr-paul-m@myway.com>
Reply-To: mr_paul_m@walla.com
Date: Wed, 17 May 2006 10:40:48 +0400
Subject: FROM MR PAUL MASINGA !!!


GREETING SIR
Your contact come to me through internet research for a foriegn assistance and for a partnership, to partake in a profitable transation.
i know this proposal may come to you as a surprise because of
the increase of fraudsters today, yet there are similar things that happens
on earth, so we should not disbelieve the trueth because of cunning
people, who go about proposing some kind of figment business
i am Mr Masinga Paul from west Africa, GHANA,
i was the accountant in one of the government company
in my country, which name is withheld for some securite reason
i was called off from office because i refused to disclose
this to the new board of directors.
the formal director for contract awarding commitee in my
company, awarded a contract and there was an over inflation
of the amount signed for the payment of the contract , which we
are surposed to pay the sum of fifty millon us dollars (50,000,000 us $)
but the director over inflated it to one hundred and fifty millon us dollars
(150,000,000 us $) and gave my office an intimidate order not to
disclose the inflation so we were given twenty millon dollars
(20,000,000 us $) as a partaking share,of the deal, and i got ten million us
dollars(10,000,000 $) as my share but because of my position
i am not suppose to own such amount of money, so i could'nt
bank it because i must be arristed and i could'nt keep it in
my apartment because of thiefs, so what i did was to store it
in a coffer and registered it in a security company as a family valuables
but because of the rigmarole of investigation, i am still
been watch, and my properties has been seized because we refused
to disclose this deal
i am contacting you because i want to transfer this fund to your
country for security purpose
I shall be Grateful if you could receive this fund
into your bank account or open an account for safekeeping
and any Investment opportunity.
This arrangement is known to you and my personal
Attorney. He might be Dealing with you directly for security reasons
as the case may be. In view of the above, if you are willing to assist for
our mutual benefits, we Will have to negotiate on your Percentage
share of he $10,000,000 that will be Kept in your position for a while and invested in your name for my trust.
In case you don't accept please do not let me out to the security and international media As I am giving you this information in total trust and
confidence I will greatly Appreciate if you accept my proposal in good faith.
note , this deal is risk free
Yours sincerely,
MR MASINGA PAUL

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