joewein.net   joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days
  jwSpamSpy

Home
About Us
Spam
419/Nigeria
Fraud
Contact

"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.

 

 

Fraud email example:

From: "Sullivan Richard" <sullivan8001@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 01 Apr 2005 11:50:26 +0000
Subject: FROM MR. SULLIVAN

ENGINEER RICHARD SULLIVAN

SHELL PETROLEUM SOUTH - AFRICA

REPLY VIA: rsullivan@tsamail.co.za

Attn: Sir,

Greetings To You.


I am Engineer Richard Sullivan, a Director of Contracts Award and review
Department with
the Shell petroleum South-Africa.


I am contacting you on the business of transferring the sum of(Twenty
Million,five Hundred
thousand United States dollars only)into a safe foreign account and the need
is very urgent.
I got your contact from the World Chambers of Commerce and it is with
business trust that
made me to contact you on this matter.I write to solicit for the transfer of
this money
into your account. This Money was generated from an over Invoiced contract
sum in my
corporation.


I am contacting you for your help and partnership for the following two
reasons:

(1) As a civil servant, I am not permitted to own foreign accounts due to
civil service
code of conduct.
(2) My present financial resources as a civil servant will not be sufficient
for me to
handle the transfer alone successfully without financial assistance from a
reliable foreign
partner abroad like you. 20% of this sum would be for you as compensation
for using your
Bank account in transferring this money,5% would be used to re-imburse the
expenses made by
both parties during the processing of the transfer which includes,telephone
bills,
travelling expenses and fees. While 75% is for me.

Please note that I will arrange to meet with you immediately after the
successful
conclusion of the transfer, the 75% share of mine will be used for
investment overseas.
Your assistance and co-operation is highly needed.I assure you that this
transaction is
100% risk free. If you are interested kindly send this following infomation
as mentioned
below:

1. Name to be used as beneficiary and beneficiarys address.

2. Your private and confidential telephone/ fax number(s)and Cell phone.

3. Your bank name,address,bank Account Number and Telephone/fax number(s).

I hope to conclude this business within the next fourteen- (14) working
days.Looking
forward to your anticipated and urgent positive response.

Best regards,
Richard Sullivan.


Anti-fraud resources: