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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

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

Fraud email example:

From: "Sanni Ahmed" <sanni@ahmedunionbank.com>
Reply-To: sanniprivate@myway.com
Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2005 23:38:17 +0000
Subject: STRICTLY A PRIVATE BUSINESS PROPOSAL

Dear Sir,

STRICTLY A PRIVATE BUSINESS PROPOSAL

I am Dr.Sanni Ahmed, The manager, Bills and Exchange at the Foreign
Remittance Department of the Union Bank of Nigeria Plc. I am writing this
letter to ask for your support and cooperation to carry out this business
opportunity in my department. We discovered an abandoned sum of
$35,000,000.00 (Thirty five million United States Dollars only) in an
account that belongs to one of our foreign customers who died along with his
entire family of a wife and two children in November 1997 in a Plane crash.

Since we heard of his death, we have been expecting his next-of-kin to come
over and put claims for his money as the heir, because we cannot release the
fund from his account unless someone applies for claim as the next-of-kin to
the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines. Unfortunately, neither
their family member nor distant relative has ever appeared to claim the said
fund. Upon this discovery, I and other officials in my department have
agreed to make business with you and release the total amount into your
account as the heir of the fund since no one came for it or discovered he
maintained account with our bank, otherwise the fund will be returned to the
banks treasury as unclaimed fund.

We have agreed that our ratio of sharing will be as stated thus; 20 % for
you as foreign partner, 75 % for us the officials in my department and 5 %
for the settlement of all local and foreign expenses incurred by us and you
during the course of this business.

Upon the successful completion of this transfer, I and one of my colleagues
will come to your country and mind our share. It is from our 75% we intend
to import Agricultural Machineries into my country as a way of recycling the
fund. To commence this transaction, we require you to immediately indicate
your interest by a return e-mail and enclose your private contact telephone
number, fax number full name and address and your designated bank
coordinates to enable us file letter of claim to the appropriate departments
for necessary approvals before the transfer can be made.

Note also, this transaction must be kept STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL because of
its nature.

I look forward to receiving your prompt response.

Dr.Sanni Ahmed.
Union Bank of Nigeria


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