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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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Fraud email example:

From: "karim ahmed" <karimahmed0002@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: karim_ahmed1616@quebecemail.com
Date: Sat, 19 Nov 2005 00:21:20 +0000
Subject: TREAT URGENT AND CONFIDENTIAL.

FROM THE DESK OF KARIM AHMED.
BILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGER,
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK ANNEX (ADB)
OUAGADOUGOU,BURKINA FASO.WEST AFRICA

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance department
of african develoment bank(ADB). I crave your indulgence as i contact you in
such a surprising manner. But I respectfully insist you read this letter
carefully as I am optimistic it will open doors for unimaginable financial
rewards for
both of us.

In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of Twenty Million Five
Hundred Thousand Us Dollar(20.5m) only , in an account that belongs to one
of our foreign customer who died along with his entire family in November
2000 in a plan crash.

Since i got information about his death, The bank have been expecting his
next of kin to come over and claim his money because the bank cannot
release it unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to the
deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines but unfortunately i learnt
that all his supposed next of kin or relation died along with him at the
plan crash leaving nobody behind for the claim.

It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this business
proposal to you so that the money will be released to you as the next of
kin or business partner to the deceased costumer for safety and subsequent
disbursement since nobody is comes for it and i dont want this money to go
into the bank treasury as unclaimed Bill.

The Banking law and guideline here stipulates that if such money remained
unclaimed after five years, the money will be transferred into the Bank
treasury as "unclaimed fund". So this fund now requried a foreigner as
next of kin in this business for the fact that the customer was a foreigner
and a Burkinabe cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner. I agree that 30%
of this money will be for you as a foreign partner, in respect to the
provision of a foreign account , 10% will be set aside for expenses incurred
during the business and 60% would be for me.

There after I will visit your country for disbursement according to the
percentages indicated. Therefore to enable the immediate transfer of this
fund to you as arranged, you must apply first to the bank as business
partner or next of kin of the deceased indicating your bank name,your bank
account number, your private telephone and fax number for easy and
effective communication and location wherein the money will be remitted.
Upon receipt of your reply,I will send to you by fax or email the text of
the application.I will not fail to bring to your notice that this
transaction is
hitch free and that you should not entertain any atom of fear as all
required arrangements have been made for the transfer. You should contact me
immediately as soon as you receive this letter.

Trusting to hear from you immediately.

Yours faithfully,

KARIM AHMED.

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