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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: Pereira Barreto <barretopereira94@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 00:56:20 +0000
Subject: I Need Your Urgent Reply

Dear Friend,
I am Dr.Pereira Barreto , an auditor with The Islamic Development
Bank (ISD). There was an account opened in this bank in 1998 and
since2002 nobody has operated on this account again. After going
throughsome old files in the records, I discovered that if I do not
remit this money out urgently, this funds will go down the drains,
into the hands of either the board of directors of this bank or the
funds may eventually be discovered by the government as a dormant fund
in the forth coming audit by the Nations auditors.They will confiscate
or send it into the government's treasury account. The question now is
who is the government and where is thetreasury? These are human beings
like you and I.The owner of this account is Mr Hatem Kamil Abdul
Fattah an Iraqi national and a miner at Kruger gold co, a geologist by
profession and he died in 2003 . No other person knows about this
account or any thing concerning it, the account has no other
beneficiary and my investigation proved to me as well that his company
does now anything about this account.The amount involved is Eleven
Million Five hundred thousand United States Dollars ($11.500.000) I
am only contacting you, as a foreigner because this money cannot be
approved to a local bank account here, but can only be approved to any
foreign account and foreign beneficiary because the money is in US
dollars and the real owner of the account is Mr Hatem Kamil Abdul
Fatah, himself a foreigner too.I only got your contact address from my
secretary who operates computer; with belief in God that you will
never let me down in this business so that I will inform you the next
step to take immediately.I need your full co-operation to make this
work fine because the management is ready to approve this payment to
any foreigner, who has correct information of this account, which I
will give to you later, if you will be able to handle such amount in
strict confidence and trust according to my instructions and advice
for our mutual benefit because this opportunity will never come again
in our life.With my position now in the office I can transfer this
money to any foreigner's reliable account, which you can provide with
assurance that this money will be intact pending my physical arrival
in your country for sharing and investment.I will also use my position
and influence to effect legal approvals for onward transfer of this
money to your account with appropriate clearance documents from the
ministries and foreign exchange department. But, only it will cost us
small money as to procure such back up documents from the ministries
concerned.Your earliest response to this letter will be appreciated.I
will like to know
your interest and willingness to assist me by reverting back to me.

I look forward to your earliest reply.
Yours Friendly,
Dr.Pereira Barreto

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