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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: "John Tetteh" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <johntettehatyourservice@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2010 20:07:06 -0000
Subject: From John Tetteh Personal Secretary Managing Director Fabrica Nacionale

>From John Tetteh
Personal Secretary
Managing Director
Fabrica Nacionale Ghana

Sir,
My name is John Tetteh, a Ghanaian Citizen living in Accra. I have worked for Fabrica Nacionale Security Company for 7 years. In these 7 years, I have been a confidential secretary to the Managing director; I have served 3 managing Directors of this company.
By this position, even though it is one of the lowest positions in the company but I have a lot of secret information about the company deposits. It may surprise you to hear or know that 40% of the consignments in our warehouse are from Europe and Asia and 95% of them contain money. In most cases ,the depositors declared them as family treasury, they do not know that we the privileged workers of the company has a way of knowing the content but the management do not care as far as it does not contain drugs. All fabrica Nacionale wants is their storage and logistic fees.

A handful of these consignments have overstayed the acceptable duration legally allowed in the agreement for the collection and they have been declared ABANDONED. The Company policy is that any consignment declared ABANDONED can be released to anyone who can provide all the secure critoded details of the consignment and the person must be ready to settle the demurrage accrued on the consignment. The company will release it.
Now, I have removed all the Security coded details of two of the consignments, It was deposited in the year 1999 April 18th by a Sudanese Army officer. He did not use his name but he declared it a Diplomatic Document. My investigation shows he is dead in 2005.No one has applied for the release of the consignment because no one has the Security Details.
I want to give you the security details and other information/documents to apply as the Next of Kin for the consignment to be released to you. I will give you the next of Kin Code. Then you will deal directly with the company as if you are the next of kin. No one will know you have me as a partner. This consignment contains $15m cash with some property and share certificates there in valued more than $20m.I have inspected it .I know what I am telling you.
If you want to work with me .Do contact me by email. We will discuss modalities. You will be happy discovering the value of this information. It will be a classified deal between me and you only.
Thanks
John Tetteh

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