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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: "Engineer magnus Williams" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <magnuswilliams202@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 1 Jan 2002 05:44:16 -0800
Subject: REF: URGENT CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS PROPOSAL.

Engineer magnus Williams,
Department of Budget and Planning
Ministry of Petroleum,
Lagos-Nigeria
Your candid attn:

REF: URGENT CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS PROPOSAL.

Most competent people are chosen for competent jobs and assignments, and with
that due respect have we also chosen to select you and contact you on
this very
confidential matter. Our Nigerian Chamber of Commerce and industry offers
variety of names of notable people from your part of the Globe. That
was where I
got your information from.Therefore, after due deliberation with my
partners, we
decided to forward to you this proposal. We believe that you would be in a
position to help us in our bid to transfer the sum of US$41.5M(Forty-0ne
million, five hundred thousand dollars only) into a
foreign account. We shall make it 100% legal as much possible as
youwould want.

We are members of the special committee for budget and planning of the
Ministry
of Petroleum. This committee is principally concerned with contract appraisals
and approval of contracts in order of priorities as regards CAPITAL
PROJECTS of
the Federal Government of Nigeria. With our positions, we have successfully
secured for ourselves the sum of Forty-one Million, Five Hundred
Thousand United
States
Dollars(US$41.5M)

We are working with the present Democratically elected Government in
my country,
and we are seeking the support of Foreign Government, which the race has
started. So they have given directive to all Federal Parasitical to settle all
Foreign Contractors being owed for contract that they have done.
Therefore, our
plan is to include your
name as one of the contractors being owed in our corporation.

What we need from you is to provide a safe Account into which the
funds will be
transferred since Government Officials in my country are not allowed
by our laws
to Operate Foreign Accounts. It has been agreed that you will be compensated
with US$8.3 Million of the remitted funds. US$31.125Million belongs to
us, while
US$2.075Million will be set aside to offset expenses and pay the necessary
taxes.It may interest you to know that two years ago a similar transaction was
carried out with one Mr. Patrice Miller, the C.E.O of Crane International
Trading Corporation at number 135, East 57th street,28th floor, New
York 10022,
with Telephone (212)308-7788 and Telex Number 6731689. After the agreement
between both of us in which he was
to take 25% of the money as his share, the money was duly transferred into his
Account. We were disappointed on our arrival in New York as we were reliably
informed that Mr. Patrice Miller was no longer on that address while his
Telephone and Telex Numbers have been reallocated to so

We need a more reliable and trustworthy person and a reputable Company to do
this business with, hence we contacted you. So if you can prove yourself to be
trusted and interested in this deal then we are prepared to do business with
you. What we want from you is the assurance that you will let us have
our share
when this amount of US$41.5M is transferred into your account.If this proposal
satisfies you, please contact us, so we can advice you on the
modalities of the
transaction. All modalities of this transfer, have been worked out and
once started will not take more than 7 Banking days with the absolute
support of
all concerned. This transaction is 100% safe and risk free now and after the
transfer.Kindly treat this as urgent and very confidential.contact me
through my
email address (magnuswilliams202@gmail.com)

Best regards.
Engineer magnus Williams
Department of Budget and Planning
Ministry of Petroleum


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