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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: "stephen mensah" <stephenprivate1@latinmail.com> (may be fake)
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005 13:10:58 +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
+233243647733
stephen_mensah00@yahoo.com


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