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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: "usman gambo" <dr_usmangambo@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: dr_usmangambo@inbox.com
Date: Fri, 09 Sep 2005 10:28:40 +0000
Subject: PARTNERSHIP

 

 
FROM THE DESK OF,
DR USMAN GAMBO,
UNION BANK OF NIGERIA PLC,
BILLS & FOREIGN EXCHANGE DEPARTMENT.
ATTENTION:
I am DR USMAN GAMBO of Bills and Foreign Exchange Remittance Department
of Union Bank of Nig. Plc. I am writing you this letter to ask for your
support and co-operation to carry out this business opportunity in my
department.
We discovered an unclaimed sum of $35Million (Thirty five Million
Dollars) in an account belonging to one of our foreign customer(Herve
Garboudes) who was a petroleum/gas consultant/contactor with the Nigeria
National Petroleum coporation who happens to be deceased during a
business trip.
He died with his wife (Christine Garboudes) on board the Swissair Flight
111 , which crashed into the Atlantic off Nova Scotia in september 2nd
1998.
The plane crash was in the news.See links below for more
detailinformaion:
http://cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/WORLD/9809/swissair.victims.list/
http://cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/WORLD/americas/9809/08/swissair.02/
http://cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/WORLD/americas/9809/05/swissair.transcript
Since we got the information about his death we have been expecting his
next of kin to come over and claim this money. Unfortunately, neither
the family nor the relation has appeared to claim this money.
We cannot release this money unless somebody applies as the next of kin
or relation to the deceased. Our banking regulation indicate that if
such money remain unclaimed for a period of eight (9) years, it would be
transferred into the Union Bank of Nig Treasury as unclaimed fund.
Another officer and I in the department now decided to transfer this
money into your account as the next of kin or relation of the deceased
for easy collection since nobody is coming for it and we don't want this
money to go back into the bank treasury.
We have put in place all mechinaries to urgently arrange to transfer out
this money through another foreign beneficiary outside the country. And
you will be duelly compensated with 25% of the total sum. So please, as
a matter of urgency if this proposal suits you send to me your telephone
and fax numbers for effective communication. I will do my best to see
that we conclude this transaction successfully on time.
Please if you are interested send me an immediate mail
to(email):dr_usmangambo@inbox.com
so that I can explain the details to you to understand everything about
this business transaction.
Waiting for your urgent response.
1. Your full Name and address
2. The name of your bank where you want the fund to be
transfered into, Account beneficiary
3. Your private Telephone and fax numbers
Awaiting your urgent reply via my
email:dr_usmangambo@inbox.com
Best Regards.
DR USMAN GAMBO
 

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