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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: Barrister Credo Mikel<mercyzeledan3@tatanova.com>
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 20:19:16 +0530
Subject: Please Treat Urgent/Confidential

Dear Prospective Partner,

My name is Credo Mikel and I am an attorney to David Bryan who has
been living in Nigeria for the past 20 years and was a crony to the
late military dictator General Sani Abacha, who ruled Nigeria from
1993-98.
After the death of the General in 1998, and the enthronement of
democracy in 1999,the family of the general and it's allies have
seriously been hunted rightly or wrongly by the present civillian
government.I say rightly or wrongly because governance in Nigeria has
always been characterized by looting of the treasury by government
officials.This trend has not stopped.Some people even believe that it
has assumed greater dimension in this present civilian
administration where governors of states are known to be stashing
away several millions of dollars abroad through their cohorts.
Quite recently,one of the governors of a state in the North central
of Nigeria called Plateau state by name Chief Joshua Dariye,was
questioned in United Kingdom for money laundery activities involving
millions of pounds.
Therefore not a few people agree that it should not be the dead alone
that should be probed. It is against this backdrop that my client,
Mr.Bryan is held in detention here in Nigeria for charges of aiding
and abeiting corruption and embezzelment.
But recently,Mr David Bryan has struck a deal with the federal
government who has actually found it legally difficult to prosecute
him due to international judicial limitations.This deal in the main,
entails his surrendering $500 Million USD held in trust for General
Abacha in Swiss trust banks in exchange for his freedom and
deportation from Nigeria once the repartriation of the fund is
completed from Switzerland.This process has already started.
However,in my last visit to Mr.Bryan, he disclosed to me that the
$15M which he personally deposited in a Security company in trust for
General Abacha in an oversea country is not part of this deal as the
investigators could not uncover it in their haste to get done with
this protracted case.
He therefore asked me to identify a trusted individual who is
previously unknown to him who could assist in securing the release
from the security firm of this money for transfer into the account of
such individual in trust for him since this amount is totally unknown
to the government of Nigeria.
Fortunately,the deposit in the security company is negotiable by a
third party with judiciary interest on surrendering of the
certificate of deposit which at the moment is in my possesion. He has
also empowerd me to assist with all the legal work needed to ensure
that this money is quickly transfered before his release.
He is offering 30% of this sum of $15M to any one that would provide
the logistics for the transfer of this money abroad, while 5% will be
for the expenses that may be incured in the cause of obtaining the
release of this fund and transfering it. It will be important here
that I mention that you will compensate me for my agency on
completion of the transfer of this money to your account.

If this interests you,please do respond through my alternative email
address which is as thus;mercyzeledan33@yahoo.co.in

My telephone number is 234 803 373 3110.This number includes our
international dial code.Please include your own telephone number on
your response.

I expect you response to this as soon as possible
Regards,
Barrister Credo Mikel.

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