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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: "Mr Stephen Mensah" <stephen_mensah@zipmail.com.br> (may be fake)
Reply-To: stephenmensah@hotmail.kg
Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 13:13:24 +0100
Subject: Re: I am waiting for your reply

Attn:Friend

My name is Stephen Mensah, I am the regional manager of the
International Commercial Bank Tema Accra Ghana I got your
information during my search through the Internet. I am
44years of age and married with 3lovely kids. It may
interest you to hear that I am a man of PEACE and don't
want problem, I only hope we can assist each other. If you
don't want this businessoffer kindly forget it, as I will
not contact you again.

I have packaged a financial transaction that will benefit
both of us, as the regional manager of the International
Commercial Bank it is my duty to send in
a financial report to my head office in the capital city
Accra at the end of each year. On the course of the last
year 2004 end of year report, I discovered
that my branch in which I am the manager made Three million
five hundred thousand dollars [3,500.000.00] which my head
office are not aware of and will never be aware of. I have
since place this fund on what we call SUSPENSE ACCOUNT
without any beneficiary.

As an officer of the bank I can not be directly connected
to this money, so this informed my contacting you for us to
work so that you can assist receive this money into your
bank account for us to SHARE.

While you will have 30% of the total fund. Note there are
practically no risk involved, it will be bank to bank
transfer, all I need from you is to
stand claim as the original depositor of this fund who made
the deposit with our branch so that my Head office can
order the transfer to your designated bank account.

If you accept this offer to work with me, I will appreciate
it very much. As soon as I receive your response I will
details you on how we can achieve it

successfully.
Best regards,
Mr Stephen Mensah


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