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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: "koffi johnson" <koffijohn@msn.com>
Date: Sat, 26 Nov 2005 07:06:38 +0000
Subject: URGENT

Dear Sir
I am Mr.John Koffi chairman of contract Award and
verification panel set up by the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). I got your contact from
the Nigeria chamber of commerce and after through
Enquirer and deliberations, my colleagues and I
decided to contact you for a very confidential
business transaction of mural benefit. During our
verification exercise, we came across an over-invoiced
contract (contract No: NNPC\PED, 1473\2000). This
contract was award in July, 2000 contract complete in
August, 2002 and the original contractor has since
been paid his contract sum leaving the over-invoiced
sum of us $125.5m (One Hundred and Twenty five
million, five hundred thousand united states dollars).
This amount has been left floating in our account with
the central bank of Nigeria, until our recent
discovery. My colleagues and I have decided to seek
for assistance of a reliable foreign partner into
whose account the fund will be transferred into for
our own use. If this proposal is acceptable to you, a
Deed of transfer of the above contract will be
obtained on your behalf to empower you as the legal
beneficiary of the contract and sum to be transferred.
All necessary and relevant documents will be procured
for the release and transfer of the fund into your
nominated account. An application for foreign exchange
allocation will be made on your behalf from the office
of the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for
the subsequent release and transfer of the fund into
your nominated account. Be informed that we are
working in collaboration with top officials of the
federal ministry of finance and the Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN) who will assist us in the transfer of
the fund. With your co-operation the success of this
transaction is guaranteed. We have agreed to
compensate you with 25% of the total sum and 70%will
be for me and my colleagues here while the romaining
5% has been napped out for miscellaneous expense that
might be incurred by will you both parties during the
course of this transaction. All things been equal,
this is how this transaction is required to be. You
are required to fax nominated bank account details and
your direct telephone and fax numbers. Please treat
this transaction with top priority and remember to
keep it as confidential as possible. As soon as we
receive your response, more details about how to
proceed will be given to you. We await your prompt
response. Sincerely.
Mr.John Koffi


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