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: "Mrs Shirley Yema Gbujama" <mrs_gbujama@msn.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2005 00:47:20 +0000
Subject: PLEASE ASSIST

Mrs. Shirley Yema Gbujama
Minister of Social Welfare,
Gender and Children Affairs
Sierra Leone

Greetings to you,

With warm heart I offer my friendship, and greetings,
and I hope this mail meets you in good time. However
strange or surprising this contact might seem to you
as we have not met personally or had any dealings in
the past, I humbly ask that you take due consideration
of its importance and the immense benefit it will be
to you.
After careful consideration with my children, we
resolved to contact you for your most needed
assistance in this manner. I duly apologize
for infringing on your privacy, if this contact is not
acceptable to you, as I make this proposal to you as a
person of integrity.
First and foremost I wish to introduce myself properly
to you. My name is Mrs. Shirley Yema Gbujama , mother of
three and the Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children
Affairs and other ministeries for Eight years running.

You may view my profile on the following link;

http://www.statehouse-sl.org/sygbujama.html

I will now give you a general overview of the
situation. When I was sworn in as Minister of Social
Welfare, Gender and Children Affairs in 1996, with my
influence, my husband Mr. Thomas Gbujama, a very successful
businessman was awarded several contracts in my
ministry and had direct dealings with foreign
investors in this field. Due to my political status, I
was not involved in my husband's business which was
very vast and successful. My beloved husband died
whilst on an official trip to One of his project sites,
where they were attacked by rebels and killed and their
corpse were never found.
When my husband died, I was contacted as next of kin
by a private security firm in Europe to come forth
with the Certificate of Deposit and claim a
deposit my husband has in their Firm in his name. At
that time, my children and I did not have an idea
where the Certificate might be. We then instructed the
security firm to continue holding the deposit
until further instructions from me. Whilst preparing
for the second remembrance of my beloved husband, I
was going through his library collection and to my
astonishment I discovered a Certificate of Deposit for
the deposit with this security firm,
and other documents relating to the deposit in
a book. The deposit which is totalling
$24,500,000 which was generated from cash payments
from his business associates in the diamond trade from
Antwerp, Belgium.
Though I knew my late husband was in the diamond
business, I did not have the knowledge that he moved
funds in cash and with my present position as a Minister
in this Present Government it will cause a lot of problem
for me and my family cause if the Government should know
of this cash they might think that my late husband
has a hand in the Blood Diamonds during the civil war
in my Country ,so I had to contact the Security company in
Europe with the assistance of my late husbands friend that
works with our Embassy in England telling them that this
funds belong to my late husbands partner and that we have
been trying to locate him for quite sometime now,as such i
have contacted you to act as a trustee to help me clear this Deposit
from the Finance and Security Company in Europe,
and we have decided to have this funds invested immediately
in commercial and residentialproperties abroad as well
as profitable ventures, as any member of my family cannot
hold such a huge amount in our name due to my political
status, hence we sincerely propose to you to render us your
most needed assistance in this regard.
If you agree to render us your assistance, your role
in this project will be to act on my behalf as a
trustee to receive the deposit(money) from the Security firm.
Though I believe this transaction should be based on mutuality,
my family's interest will be protected by family friend, who
helped us make contact with this Security Firm,he is a lawyer
(attorney) attached to the Sierra Leone Embassy in England.

I have informed him that I am locating one of my
husband's business associates (you) to handle the
funds and invest on our behalf, as he might be opposed
to our decision if he found out that I barely know you.

For your reliable assistance, we are offering you 15%($3,675,000)
of the funds. I thank you in advance as we anticipate your assistance
in enabling us achieve this goal.

On hearing from you, I will forward to you all the
necessary documents that will assist you in Clearing
this Deposite boxes.
As you may understand,due to my sensitive position
in the present government,it is not safe to communicate
with me via phone or fax.
This is why I have communicated with you with my
private email address, and I like us to keep it this way,
for the safety of this transaction.
Please contact me whether or not you are interested in assisting us.
This will enable us make alternative plans, in the
event of non-interest on your part.

With warm regards,


Mrs. Shirley Yema Gbujama


Anti-fraud resources: