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.

 

 

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

Fraud email example:

From: "RAPHEAL JOEL" <raphealjoel2002@msn.com>
Reply-To: rapheal@katamail.com
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 00:19:44 +0000
Subject: Re: Invitation to a Rewarding Partnership.


Mr.Rapheal Joel
Pretoria 0001, Republic of South Africa


October 20, 2005
Attn: The President/CEO
Re: Invitation to a Rewarding Partnership.
It is my great pleasure to write you about this high rewarding business
transaction. I got your contact from network online and I hope that you will
be capable and reliable to handle this confidential mutually beneficial
business and that all confidential information will be handled with the same
strict professionalism that you expect from me.
I am a top official in the Presidency. With the cooperation of two other
officials, we have in our possession an over due payment in US funds. These
funds represent certain percentage of a contract value executed by a foreign
company, which was deliberately over invoiced to the tune of Fifteen
Million, Six Hundred Thousand United States Dollars (US$15,600,000.00). The
actual contract amount haven been paid to the contractor, it is the excess
balance of US$15.6M that we now intend to transfer immediately to your
designated company or personal account.
The South African government strongly believe that foreign direct
investments are the engines to sustainable economic development, to that
extent, government have continued to encourage foreign investments by
promptly paying all debts owed foreign contractors. These have provided
foreign investors new or expanded investment in South Africa with rich
rewards and wealth of opportunities – the rewards certainly exceed the risk
by unimaginable high margins. With the cooperation of some top officials at
the Department of Finance and the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), we will
include the excess balance bill for approval and immediate transfer to your
account without any hitch.
We are seeking your MORAL and FINANCIAL cooperation to be the beneficiary of
the excess amount because the law forbids serving government officials from
owning or operating foreign accounts. I have the authority of my colleagues
to propose 20% compensation to you, 70% compensation to us and a 10% to be
set aside to reimburse all incidental and miscellaneous expenses. You must
assure us of total confidentiality. The transaction is 100% safe, secured
and we strongly insist on a 100% utmost confidentiality as we are still in
active government services. I have reposed my confidence in you trusting
that you will not betray us.
It does not matter whether or not your company does contract projects of the
nature described here, the assumption is that your company won a major
contract and subcontracted it to other companies. More often than not, big
trading companies and firms of unrelated fields win major contracts and
subcontract it to more specialized firms for execution.
Kindly forward your confidential telephone and fax numbers, company
information, banking details i.e. bank name, address, account number, swift
code and other pertinent information to my Email, upon your acceptance of my
proposal. I look forward to your positive response and I urge you to look
forward to a rewarding business relationship.

Yours truly,
Mr.Rapheal Joel


Anti-fraud resources: