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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: MR OKAFOR JOHN <joka@steenphoto.com>
Reply-To: joka@box.az
Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2005 10:37:20 -0500
Subject: NNPC

NIGERIAN NATIONAL PETROLEUM CORPORATION (NNPC)
ENG.ABDEL RAHAMAN
GROUP MANAGING DIRECTOR.
WESTERN REGIONAL OFFICE, ANNEX,
FALOMO-IKOYI,
LAGOS, NIGERIA.
Attn:
I am Eng. John Okafor, the group managing director
with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC).
I seek your confidence and assistance in a business
relationship for our both mutual benefits.
In 1998, a contract was awarded to a German Contractor
for the Turn Around Service Maintenance of our four
major refineries here in Nigeria and was grossly
over-invoiced up to the tune of $296,000,000.00USD
(Two Hundred and Ninety Six Million United States
Dollars).
The total contract sum was $260,000,000.00USD (Two
Hundred and Sixty Million United States Dollars) but
as a result of the over-invoicing, it was raised up to
$296,000,000.00USD (Two Hundred and Ninety Six Million
United States Dollars) and the contractor has been
fully paid i.e $260,000,000.00USD (Two Hundred and
Sixty Million United States Dollars).
We however seek your assistance and support to enable
us transfer the remaining sum of $36,000,000.00USD
(Thirty Six Million United States Dollars) into your
bank account or any other reliable bank account in
your country for possible investments in Real Estate
and other good ventures.
The modalities to effect this transfer has been worked
out as we are going to use our position here to place
you as the contractor who the contract was awarded to
and having accomplished the contract wish to apply for
payments.
We shall scrap every detail of the former contractor
and replace it with yours to enable you apply for
payments on our behalf as the beneficiary.
There are other documents to be obtained to support
this transfer in your favour while we are assuring you
that there is no risk involved in this transaction as
all modalities will take the resemblance of a real
contractor.
We have arranged to compensate you with 20% o f the
total funds, setting aside 5% to cover all expenses
that might be incurred by both of us to facilitate the
transfer into your nominated bank account.
All contract documents will be re-endorsed by you at
the appropriate time to avoid any hitch while
processing the transfer of the fund while we shall be
entering into a Partnership Agreement to safe guard
our both interest in view of this transaction.
It is expected that this transaction is going to be
concluded in the next 21 bank working days given
fullest cooperation.
If this business proposal is okay to you, please
kindly get back to me with necessary particulars as listed below.
Name and address of your company
your phone and fax
Your full name
Name and address of your bank
Account number
Swift code and Routing numbers
A/C beneficiary name
We are waiting for urgent response.
Best Regards,
Eng. John Okafor

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