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: mrmar_kedwar@yahoo.co.in
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2005 17:15:58 +0300
Subject: URGENT RESPONSE

NIGERIA PORTS AUTHORITY
HEADQUARTERS
SHIPHOUSE MARINA-EAST
LAGOS, NIGERIA.

From the desk of:
MR MARK EDWARDS
DIRECTOR OF FINANCE

ATTN:THE PRESIDENT/CEO

INVESTMENT PROPOSAL

Although this proposal might come to you as a surprise, since is from someone you do not know or have seen before, but based on recomendations, I gathered from a very reliable source here in Nigeria.
I am the director, fund co-ordinator of the finance contract departmant of Nigeria ports authority. The crux of this letter is that the finance/contract department of the NPA delibrately over inflated the contract value of various contract awarded, In the course of the disbursement, my office was able to track down the sum of US$12.5M (Twelve Million, Five Hundred Thousand U.S Dollars) as the over invoiced sum. This money is now floating in the NPA domicilliary account with the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN). I and my colleagues now want to quickly transfer this fund to a safe norminated foreign account for possible investment. We are not allowed as a matter of government policy to operate any foreign account because of our status as civil/public servants. hence the need to solicit for your full banking details, to enable us transfer this money into your account.

Upon your acceptance of this proposal, we have also agreed on a sharing ration:
1.30% for you as the account owner
2.60% for I and my colleagues
3.10% will be set aside to defray all incidental expenses both locally and internationally during the cause of this transaction.

Furthermore we shall be coming over to your country when the money is finanlly in your account and we shall be relying on your advise as regards to investment of our share, be informed that this business is genuine and 100% safe considering the high powered government officials involved.

Send the following information:
1.Your Residential address, bank name, address and account number
2.Your phone number for effective communication

This is to effect the swift transfer of this fund into your account in less than (12) working days.

Yours faithfully
MR MARK EDWARDS.
DIRECTOR.

Anti-fraud resources: