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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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Fraud email example:

From: "Mr John Cabongo" <johncabongo@voila.fr> (may be fake)
Reply-To: johncabogo@caramail.com
Date: Thu, 25 Nov 2004 15:10:52 +0100
Subject: THIS IS NOT SPAM/ PLS GO THROUGH


From the Desk of.Mr John Cabongo
Bill and Exchange Manager
Foreign Remittance Dept.
Bank of Africa
Dear Friend
I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance
department of Bank of Africa Burkina Faso I am writing to seek your consent over a deal in my department.
In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of US$2.5m US dollars ( Two million Five Hundred Thousand US dollars) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer who died along with his entire family in a fatal motor accident
Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless some body applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking gildings and laws but unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next of kin or relation died alongside with him at the
motor accident leaving nobody behind for the claim.
It is therefore upon this discovery that i now decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and we don't want this money to go into the bank treasury as unclaimed bill.
The banking law and guideline here stipulates that if such money remained
unclaimed after fours years, the money will be transferred into the bank
treasury as unclaimed fund. The request of foreigner as next of kin in
this business is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a Burkinabe cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner.
i agree that 30% of this money will be for you as a foreign partner, in
respect to the provision of a foreign account , 10% will be set aside for expenses incurred during the business and 60% would be for me.
Thereafter, I will visit your country for disbursement according to the percentage indicated.
Therefore, to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you as

arranged, you must apply first to the bank as relation or next of kin of the deceased indicating your bank name, your bank account number, your private telephone and fax number for easy and effective communication and location where in the money will be remitted.
Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email the text of the application .
I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch-free and that you should not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made for the transfer.

Trusting to hear from you immediately.
Your faithfully
Mr John Cabongo
Phone .00266.76.55.76.71
Bill and Exchange Manager.






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