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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: "graham philips" <grah_philips@erc-team.org>
Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2005 07:38:14 +0000
Subject: PLS REPLY

PLS REPLY
DR.GRAHAM PHILIPS
ECONOMIC RECOVERY COMMITTE
FEDERAL SECRETARIAT,
NIGERIA.
Dear Sir/Madam,
BUSINESS PROPOSAL: TRANSFER OF US$25.5 M (TWENTY-FIVE
MILLION, FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS)
& BUSINESS INVESTMENTS PARTNERSHIP.
First, I must solicit your strictest confidence in this transaction; this is
by virtue of its nature as being utterly confidential and top secret as you
were introduced to us in confidence through the Nigerian Chamber of
Commerce, foreign trade division. And if the contents of this mail do meet
with your approval, I humbly crave your indulgence.
I am DR.GRAHAM PHILIPS, the chairman of the Economic Recovery Committee
(ERC) set up by the present civilian Government of Nigeria to review
economic policies of government establishments and find out ways to reduce
waste and maximize revenues allocated to them in preparation to the
privatization of these establishments by the present civilian government.
In the course of our work at the ERC, we discovered this fund which resulted
from gross re-valuation of contracts by top government officials of the
Nigeria National Petroleum Cooperation (NNPC). The company that executed the
contracts has been duly paid and the contracts commissioned, leaving the sum
of US$25.5M Million lying unclaimed in the RESERVE ACCOUNT of Nigeria
Government.
Upon interrogation of the directors of engineering and finance, who both
were my contemporaries in the university, they confessed to me in confidence
that they had an agreement with the original contractors to re-valuate the
original contracts by 30%, as gratification to them. This 30% which amounts
to US$25.2M was to be their share as gratification from the contractors,
they pleaded to me not to disclose this information to the government as
they will lose their jobs and their family names destroyed, which I
discussed with the other two members of my committee and we all unanimously
agreed to find a foreign contractor who should put a legal claim on the fund
and have the money transferred to his or her account as the contractor that
completed the contracts.
I have therefore been mandated as a matter of trust by my colleagues in the
committee to look for an overseas partner to who will receive this sum of
US$25.5 M legally to his account, by sub-contracting the original contracts
to you. This is bearing in mind that our civil service code of conduct dose
not allow us from owning foreign company or running foreign account while in
government service, hence I am contacting you for this mutual transaction.
All logistics are in place and all modalities worked out for the smooth
conclusion of the transaction within ten to fourteen days of commencement.
DR.GRAHAM PHILIPS


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