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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: "Issa Ahmed" <issa_ahmed013@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 19:46:29 +0000
Subject: FROM THE DESK OF MR ISSA AHMED

FROM THE DESK OF MR ISSA AHMED
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (ANNEX)
BILL AND EXCHANGE DEPARTMENT,
OFFSHORE OFFICE,OUAGADOUGOU,BURKINA-FASO.


Dear.

I know that this letter may come to you as a suprise.I got your contact
address from the Internet while I was searching for a busines partner.My
name is MR ISSA AHMED.the Bill and Exchange(assistant) Manager of the
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (ANNEX) ,Ouagadouguo Burkina Faso.

In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of USD$22.300.000 (TWENTY
TWO MILLION THREE HUNDRED U.S.A DOLLARS). In an account that belongs to this
our foreign customer who died along with his wife and and children in the
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 the 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 in the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim.

It is therefore upon this discovery that I and my colleague in the
department now decided to make this business proposals to you and release
the money to you as next ofkin or relation to the deceased for safety and
subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it because we don't want
this money to go into the bank treasury as unclaimed Bill. The banking law
and guidelines here
stipulates that if such money remains unclaimed after five years, the money
will
be transferred into the bank treasury asunclaimed fund.

The request of foreigner in this transaction is necessary because our late
customer was a foreigner and a Burkinabe cannot stand as next of kin to a
foreigner. We agree that 33% of this money will be for you as foreigner
partner in respect to the provision of a foreign account.2% will be set
aside for expenses incurred during the business and 65%would be for me and
my colleague, after which we shall visit your country for disbursement
according to the percentages indicated.

To enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you as we arranged,you will
furnished me with a good receving account detail where the money will be
transfered into,your private tel and fax number for easy communication.

Upon receipt of the above mentioned, I will send to you by fax or e-mail a
text of the application which you shall retype and fax to our foreign
remittance Department,for
easy execution of the transaction.

I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is 100%
hitch-free on both side. As all required arrangement have been made for this
transaction.Please I would like you to keep this transaction confidential
and as a top secret as you may wish to know that we are Bank officials.

Your promt response will be highly appreciated.
Yours Sincerely,
ISSA AHMED(MR)

_________________________________________________________________
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