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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: "Ayew Sawyer" <acums@zwallet.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: acs96@fsmail.net
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2005 00:25:47 -0700
Subject:

From:AYEW E S
Accra Ghana
TeL:+233 244 621738
Reply To:acs96@fsmail.net

Dear Friend,

I am Ayew Sawyer, auditor in chief with a bank Ghana.

During one of our routine auditing exercise,we discovered a dormant account belonging to one of our foreign customers.This account has been dormant for the past years without anyone operating it.The account was fixed deposited for 18 calendar months,with a value of Seven Million, Five hundred thousand United States Dollars(US$7,500,000.00) only in my branch.Upon maturity several notices were sent to him without any reply from him.He was a merchant on gold and diamond in the sub region.

Again,we tried to reach him through his country embassy but all efforts failed.We later learnt that he was ambushed and killed by LURD rebels in Liberia in the year 2000.Further investigation revealed that the deceased customer did not declare any next of kin in his official papers including the paper work of his bank deposit.And he also confided in my partner the last time he was at his office that no one except him knows about the deposit in my bank which should be maintained secret.So,Seven Million,f
ive hundred United States Dollars is still lying in my bank and no one will ever come forward to claim it.What bothers us most is that according to the laws of my country at the expiration of five years the funds will revert to the ownership of the Federal Government if nobody applies to claim the funds,and will be disbursed by seniors minister and we shall gain nothing.

Moreover,our bureau of conduct does not allow workers to maintain and operate a dormicilliary account which prompted our contacting you.Against this backdrop,our suggestion to you is that we will like you as a foreigner to stand as the next of kin to the deceased Int'l Merchant so that you will be able to receive his funds as he next of kin.The operation will be a bank to bank affair.

WHAT IS TO BE DONE:

Provide us with your Full Names and Address so that we will expidite action.Thereafter,I will draft a transfer application which you will forward to the telex dept for the transfer of the money to you.

Should you be interested please send me your private phone and fax numbers for easy communication, you can write me via my private box:acs96@fsmail.net,and I will provide you with more details of this operation.Your earliest response to this letter will
be appreciated.

Kind Regards

AYEW



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