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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

Fraud email example:

From: "emmanuel favour" <favour372@hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 19:20:56 +0000
Subject: I NEED YOUR URGENT ASSISTANCE

FROM THE DESK OF NANADO BENJAMIN
BILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGER
BANK OF AFRICA.
OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO.

I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance department
of BANK OF AFRICA Iam writing to seek your coperation over a business
deal.In my departmentn we discovered an abandoned sum of $ 27.7million
USD.In an account that belongs to one of our foreign customar who died along
with his entirefamily in a plane crash.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 somebody applies for it as next of
kin or relation to the deceased as
indicated in our banking guidelines but unfortunately we learnt that all his
supposed next of kin or relation died alongside with him at the plane crash
leaving nobody behind for the claim. It is therefore upon this discovery
that I and other officials in my department now decided to make this
businness 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 moneyto go into the Bank
treasury as unclaimed Bill.The Banking law and guideline here stipulates
that if such money remained unclamed after four years, the money will be
transfered into the Bank treasury as unclaimed fund.The request of foreigner
as next of kin in this usiness is occasioned by the fact that the customer
was a foreigner and a Burkinabe cannot stand as ext
of kin to a foreigner.We agree that 30 % of this money will be for you as
foreign partner, in
respect to the provision of a foreign account, 10 % will be set aside for
expenses incured during the business and 60 % would be for me and my
colleagues. There after I and my colleagues will visit your country for
disbursement accoding to the percentages indicated.Therefore to enable the
immediate trnansfer of this fund to you as arranged, you must apply first to
the bank as relations or next of kin of the deceased indicating your claims
and wherein 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 stricly confidential and i will use all our position in this
Bank to effect a hitch free transfer.You should contact me immediately as
soon as you receive this letter.Trusting to hear from you immediately.
Your’s faithfully,
NANADO BENJAMIN
Bill and exchange manager,
BANK OE AFRICA.

I NEED YOUR URGENT ASSISTANCE

_________________________________________________________________
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