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: "Mr.William Kojo" <williamskojo@maktoob.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: wmskojo@yahoo.com
Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2005 13:22:11 +0100
Subject: Urgent-From Mr.Williams.

Greetings:

My name is Mr.William Kojo, I am the Ashanti
regional manager of the International Commercial
Bank of Ghana in West Africa. I am a Christian.
I do not want problems but I just hope you can
assist me. I write you this letter in good faith.

I am in control of Two million, eight hundred and
fifty thousand US dollars ($2,850,000.00) and I
realized the excess profit from a contract that was
awarded to a foreign company here in Ghana by the
World Health organization to supply ante-natal and
post-natal drugs to rural areas in Ghana and other
West African countries. This said money for the
supply of drugs was first deposited to the Bank
where I work.
With my position as the manager, I trade with the
money in Ghana stock market before the contractors
withdrew the money for the said purpose. I deposited
the profit I made on Escrow call account and I did
not declare this to my head office.

I am contacting you, to stand as the beneficiary of
this fund because as the regional manager I don't
have to be involved with this kind of amount of
money. I can move this money to our offshore
filtering center London covering the region, but
can I rely trust you to hold this money for me until
I arrive your country and pick it up you and myself
deduct 15% of the money as your commission. If you
accept my offer you can contact me only on my private
phone number or email-address. If you do not accept
can you forget I contacted you?

All I need is for you to get me a good current
account in your bank where I can move this money.
There are practically no risks involved, it will
be a bank to bank transfer. I hope you understand
my situation.

Thank you and God bless.
Yours truly,
William kojo.
Phone:00233244973879




Anti-fraud resources: