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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: "John Okonkwo" <umark@email.ro> (may be fake)
Reply-To: johk@fastermail.com
Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2005 09:35:27 -0800
Subject: From John

African Development Bank,
ABUJA NIGERIA,
17th of November, 2004.

Dear Respected friend,

This is a proposal in context but actually an appeal soliciting for your
unreserved assistance in consummating an urgent transaction requiring maximum
confidence. Though this approach appears desperate,I can assure you
that whatever
questions you would need to ask or any other thing you will need to know
regarding this proposal will be adequately answered to give you a clearer
understanding of it, so as to arrive at a successful conclusion.

My name is Mr john Okonkwo, the Chief Auditor of African Development Bank
(ADB)Abuja Nigeria. On December 6, 1998, a foreign
consultant/contractor with the
Cadbury Kenya Ltd,Mr. Mohamed Showadfy Ahmed,made a numbered time
(fixed) Deposit
for twelve calendar months,valued at US$30,000,000.00, (Thirty Million United
States Dollars) in my branch. Upon maturity, I sent a routine
notification to his
forwarding address but got no reply. After a month, I sent a reminder
and finally
we discovered from his contract employers, the Cadbury Kenya Ltd, that Mr.
Mohamed Ahmed died in the ctober,1999 Egypt air crash.You can visit
the sites to
confirm this:

http://www.greatdreams.com/PassEAir990.htm
http://www.cnn.com/US/9911/02/egyptair990.list/index.html

On further investigation,I found out that he died without making a
WILL, and all
attempts to trace his next of kin was fruitless. I therefore made further
investigation and discovered that Mr. Mohamed Ahmed did not declare
any next of
kin or relations in all his official documents,including his Bank Deposit
paperwork in our Bank. I have carefully moved out these
funds(US$30million)from
our bank as sundry funds to an offshore Deposit Company in the European Union.
From past
experiences, I know that no one will ever come forward to claim the
deceased funds.

According to the Law, at the expiration of 5 (five) years,the funds will be
Unclaimable and revert to the ownership of the Nigerian Government if nobody
applies to claim the fund. In order to avert this negative development, I in
conjunction with a colleague (the Chief Operating Officer in the
bank) now seek
your permission to allow my
attorney do a CHANGE OF OWNERSHIP/REASSIGNMENT OF CREDIT of stated funds from
the! "deceased" to your name, so that the funds(US$30million)would be
released to
you as the new owner (on behalf of my colleague and myself). We are
writing you
because, as public servants, we cannot operate a foreign account .

Consequently, I will present you as the owner of the funds in the
Deposit Company
so you can be able to claim them. This is simple. I will like you to provide
immediately;

1. Full names
2. Contact address
3. Telephone and fax numbers

Once I receive these information, I will prepare the necessary documents which
will put you in place as the new owner of the funds. The money will then be
released to your custody by the Deposit Company, for us to share in
the ratio of
70% for us and 30% for you.There is no risk at all as all the
paperwork for this
transaction will be done by the solicitor
and this will guarantees the successful execution of this
transaction. If you are
interested, please reply immediately via my email address. Upon your
response,I
shall then provide you with more details and my confidential phone number for
further explanation that will help you understand the transaction.

No doubt this proposal will make you apprehensive, please we implore you to
observe utmost confidentiality and rest assured that this transaction would be
most profitable for both of us because we shall require your
assistance to invest
our share in your country (buying of properties like real estate etc). This is
why your urgent action and response is of priority to enable us conclude this
transaction in a timely and professional manner.I await your urgent response
please through my email.

Thanks for anticipated and kind co-operation.

Yours Sincerely,

Mr. John Okonkwo S.



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