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: "DR PETER MENSAH" <mensah5X5@yahoo.co.in> (may be fake)
Reply-To: mensahX5X@yahoo.co.in
Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 14:44:06 +0100
Subject: RELATIONSHIP ATTENTION

Dear Friend,
To be precise, I am DR PETER MENSAH, a manager of
bills/exchange at the Foreign Remittance Department of
NED Bank of South Africa Limited [NBSA]. In my
department, we discovered an abandoned sum of Twenty-
Two Million United States Dollars only [US $22m] in
an account that belonged to one of our foreign
customers who died along with his entire family on 2nd
January, 1998 in a ghastly motor accident. 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
applied for it as next of kin or relation to the
deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines.

My colleague and I in the department decided to
establish a cordial business relationship with you
hence my contacting you. We want to present you as the
next of kin or relation of the deceased, so that we
can release the fund into your account for safety and
subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it
and again we do not want this money to go into the
Government Account as unclaimed bill. Now it is
stipulated that the above sum will be transferred into
Government Account as unclaimed Fund on or before
December 2005. The reason behind our requesting you to
purportedly your good self as next of kin is
occasioned by the fact that the deceased was a
foreigner.

Mode of sharing after the successful completion of
the transfer, my colleagues and I will visit your
country for disbursement. For the role you will be
expected to play a whole exercise, we have agreed to
give you Twenty Percent (20%) of the total sum and
75% will be kept for my colleagues and I in your
account for investment purposes in your country as
may be agreed by the transacting parties, while the
balance 5% will be for expenses .

In support of the aforementioned therefore you are
urged to reply this letter indicating your readiness
and interest and interest to participate in the
business. After receiving your reply, you will be
communicated to
with the exact steps to take. I quite believe that
you will protect our interest by keeping this business
top secret and confidential. Your interest will be
equally protected as we must maintain maximum
confidentiality.
Trusting to hear from you quickly through my e-mail.

I count on your earliest response.

Thanks indeed for your anticipated co-operation and l

Best Regards to
you and your family.
DR PETER MENSAH








Anti-fraud resources: