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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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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Gary Little" <littlegary111@googlemail.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: littlegary111@live.com
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:20:58 -0000 (GMT)
Subject: Mikhail oil resource



Good Day,

I am Gary J. Little, a private investigator in uk, my client Mr. Mikhail
Khodorkovsky, an oil magnate of Yukos Oil Company charged with tax evasion
by the Russian Government for political reasons seek your
partnership/proxy to invest some amount under your supervision to avoid
seizure since his company's main assets, production units, refineries and
petrol stations, have been sold in series of staged bankruptcy auctions.

http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9167397,
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article466682.ece
http://www.letthemgonow.com/

Mikhail Khodorkovsky intend to liquidate a large investment in cash and
structures offshore, and take the capital appr. derived to provide a new
investment fund under your management. As you can see, his assets are
frozen and auctioned, meanwwhile there is an excess of USD5b lying in
offshore accounts, unable to be used as guarantee. The funds being
liquidated arose from independent investments of the group, outside the
russian soil, so we can legitimately do so, only if this is done quietly.
If the Russian authorites hear about this, we shall have to tender it for
bankruptcy auctions.

You will stand as the beneficiary of the fund after a lawyer has arranged
documentation which would enable release the sum to you. It is my client's
wish to invest this sum outside Russia and never to be connected with any
of political opponents. The transaction has to be concluded before Mikhail
Khodorkovsky is out from jail. As soon as I get your willingness to comply
I will give you more details. contact me via;little_gary@ecunet.org

Thank you very much.

Gary J. Little

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