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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.

 

 

Fraud email example:

From: "Macalbert Chua" <macalbert8@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2005 20:55:52 +0800
Subject: Re: THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND REPLY

Dear Joe Wein,

Thank you very much for your investigation and information.

Firstly, we thought it is a real good buyer and I have send all our Bank
information and Campany Details to them in the Profoma Invoice.

Thus, we are afraid that they are going to use our private information for
any illegal activities. Please advise us what to do? Are they anyone going
to catch them or take any legal action against such dishonest rogue buyer?

Best Regards,
Macalbert Chua



>From: "Joe Wein" <joewein@pobox.com>
>To: "Macalbert Chua" <macalbert8@hotmail.com>
>Subject: Re: REQUEST FOR INVESTIGATION ON BENIN BUYER
>Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2005 15:37:59 +0900
>
>Hello,
>
>yes, this is a scam.
>
>The websites and email addresses are from free webhosting companies and
>free
>email accounts.
>
>The content of the website is largely a copy of the website of the Nigerian
>"National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control"
>(http://www.nafdacnigeria.org/). That is why the text on the seal of the
>NAFDAC (as well as the rest of the website) is in English and not in
>French,
>the official administrative language of the Republic of Benin.
>
>There is no way a government administration would use a free webhosting
>service for its official website (actually, two free websites,
>nafdacbenin.r8.org and nafdacbenin.t2u.com, one of which doesn't work). All
>Benin government websites are hosted under gouv.bj addresses.
>
>I searched for the phone/fax numbers of the supposed buyer and found the
>exact same set of numbers used with a totally different company name. The
>phone number is actually a mobile phone.
>
>Thanks for providing the details of this scam. I will warn about it on my
>website to protect others.
>
>Best regards
>
>Joe Wein
>
>joewein.de LLC
>6-30 Sumiyoshidai, Aoba-ku
>Yokohama, 227-0035, Japan
>
>E-Mail: joewein@pobox.com
>WWW: http://www.joewein.de
>WWW: http://www.jwspamspy.net
>Fighting spam and scams on the Internet
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Macalbert Chua" <macalbert8@hotmail.com>
>To: <419report@gmail.com>
>Sent: Monday, 14 November, 2005 23:02
>Subject: RE: REQUEST FOR INVESTIGATION ON BENIN BUYER
>
>

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