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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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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Paul Okoue" <paul_okoue6@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: paul_okoue3@yahoo.com.au
Date: Sat, 01 Oct 2005 07:51:06 -0500
Subject: NEXT OF KIN/CLAIMS

Dear Friend,
I am Mr.Paul Okoue, the personal financial consultant to Mr Gregory Barrow,a
national of your country, who used to work with the Nigerian Petroleum Trust
Fund,(PTF),as an expartriate staff,here in Nigeria. He was our valued
Customer.On the 4th May 2002, my client, his wife And their only child were
involved in the plane crash here in Nigeria with EAS Airlines (Executive
Airline Services) flight,EAS 4226,Registration: 5N-ESF,with our then sports
minister Mr Mark Ishaya Aku. Since then I have made several attempts to
locate any of his extended relatives but this has also proved
unsuccessful.After those several unsuccessful attempts to locate any member
of his family, I decided to contact you on this subject matter so that I can
present you as the bonafide next of kin to the said account.
NOTE:
Your business status does not matter in this transaction,What matters is
your ability to assist in repartrating the fund left behind by my client
before they get confisicated or declared unserviceable by the Finance
Company where this huge sum is lodged. Particularly,the Pacific Finance and
Investment Company where the deceased had a deposit whose total value
including accrued interest is about US$12.5Million (Twelve Million Five
Hundred Thousand US Dollars Only).As his finance consultant in the same
company,I have been mandated to provide the next of kin or have the
fund confisicated within few weeks.Since I have no clue of any of his next
of kin/relatives,and has tried unsuccesfully to locate them for some months
now, I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin of the deceased
as if it is an
inheritance left behind by him for you as his next of kin so that the
proceeds of this account valued at US$12.5Million(Twelve Million Five
Hundred Thousand US Dollars Only) will be paid to you as an inheritance, and
then you and I will share the fund after you receive it in your account. I
have the ability
to negotiate for the release of the Death Certificate of the deceased,which
shall serve as one of the legal documents that can be used to back-up the
transaction.If you can handle this transaction for our joint benefit, please
get back to me on as soon as possible,so that I can give you more details on
this matter.What is required now is to register/authenticate you as the
bonafide next of kin to the fund.
All I require is your honest cooperation to enable us see this deal
through.I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate
arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law.We will discuss
the sharing ratio when you respond.I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Best Regards.
Mr.Paul Okoue


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