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: "idris musa" <id_ris_musa01@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2005 23:16:02 +0000
Subject: TREAT URGENT AND CONFIDENTIAL.

FROM THE DESK OF Mr.IDRIS MUSA.
BILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGER,
BANK OF AFRICA (BOA)
OUAGADOUGOU,BURKINA FASO.WEST AFRICA


Dear Friend,

Compliment of the season, I am the manager of bill and exchange at the
foreign remittance department of Bank Of Africa (BOA). I crave your
indulgence as i contact you in such a surprising manner. But I respectfully
insist you read this letter carefully as I am optimistic it will open doors
for unimaginable financial rewards for both of us.

In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of Fifteen Million,Three
Hundred Thousand US dollars (US$15.3m) only , in an account that belongs to
one of our foreign customer who died along with his entire family in
November 2000 in a plan crash. Since we got information about his death, the
bank has been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money
because we cannot release it unless somebody applies for it as next of kin
or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines but
unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next of kin or relatives died
with him at the plan crash leaving nobody behind for the claims.

It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this business
proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation
to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is
coming for it and i dont want this money to go into the bank treasury as
unclaimed Bill.

The Banking law and guideline here stipulates that if such money remained
unclaimed after five years, the money will be transferred into the Bank
treasury as unclaimed fund. The request of a foreigner as next of kin in
this business is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner
and a Burkinabe cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner. I agree that 30%
of this money will be for you as my foreign partner, in respect to the
provision of a foreign account , 10% will be set aside for expenses incurred
during the business and 60% would be for me..

Thereafter I will visit your country for disbursement according to the
percentages indicated. Therefore to enable the immediate transfer of this
fund to you as arranged, you must apply first to the bank as relation or
next of kin to the deceased indicating your bank name,your bank account
number, your private telephone and fax number for easy and effective
communication and location wherein the money will be remitted. Upon receipt
of your reply,I will give you more details about this deal as well as a
specimen of the text of the application which you will fill and send to the
bank .
I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch free
and that you should not entertain any atom of fear as all required
arrangements have been made for the transfer. You should contact me
immediately as soon as you receive this letter.
Trusting to hear from you immediately.

Yours faithfully,
Mr.IDRIS MUSA.

_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today it's FREE!
http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/

Anti-fraud resources: