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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: "Victor Okoye" <victorokoye_32@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: victorokoyye@i12.com
Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2005 08:37:02 +0000
Subject: Waiting for your reply

Dear Friend,

After due deliberation with my colleagues, I decided to forward this
proposal. We want a reliable person who could assist us to transfer the sum
of Thirty Million United States Dollars(US$30,000,000.00) into his
account.This fund resulted from an over-invoced bill from contract awarded
by us under the budget allocation to my ministry and the bill was approved
for payment by the concerned ministries.

The contract has been executed, commissioned and the contractor was paid the
actual cost of the contract. we are left with the balance of
US$30,000,000.00 as part of the over-invoiced amount, which we have
deliberately over estimated, for our own, I am contacting you to be our
custodian for this fund.

1. 20% for you (Account Owner)
2. 70% for us
3. 10% for Tax, as may required by our Government and yours.

As you may want to know and to make you less curious,I got your address from
adverts, in business directory that protrayed your establishment in good
light. I am the Secretary of the Contract Awarding Committee (CAC)of the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

This transaction is very much free from all sorts of RISK and TROUBLE from
my Government.
We have been exercising patience for this opportunity for so long and to
most of us this is a life time opportunity we cannot affford to miss. To get
this fund paid into your account, we have to present a Payment Invoice from
a foreign establishment like yours. With this invoice, we will seek approval
to transfer the fund within 14 banking days through the APEX BANK to your
designatd Bank Account.

I and one of my colleagues involved in this deal will come to your country
to arrange for our share upon the confirmation from you that the money has
been credited into your nominated Bank Account. Consequently upon your
acceptance of my proposal,kindly confirm your interest by revert mail to the
above e/mail address It will surprise you why we choose you and trusted you
for this transaction. Yes, we believe that good friends can be discovered
and business like this cannot be realized without trust. This is why we have
decided to trust you for this transaction. we are looking forward to doing
this transaction with you.

Be further informed that everyone's interest and security had been
considered before you were contacted. So be rest assured and feel free to go
into this transaction with us. But let honesty be our watch word throughout
this transaction and your prompt reply will be highly appreciated.

Best regards,
Victor Okoye.


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