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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: "Taiwo Balogun" <taiwo_balogun101@msn.com>
Date: Sun, 04 Dec 2005 04:37:54 +0000
Subject: I NEED YOUR URGENT REPLY

Hello And Good Day,We want to transfer to overseas ($14,500.000.00
USD)forteen million five hundred thousand United States Dollars) from
Ecobank Nig Plc Merchant Bankers.

I want to ask you to quietly look for a reliable and honest person who will
be capable and fit to provide either an existing bank account or to set up a
new Bank A/c immediately to receive this money, even an empty A/c can serve
to receive this money, as long as you will remain honest to me till the end
for this important business trusting in you and believing in God that you
will never let me down either now or in future.

I am Mr. Taiwo Balogun Auditor General in Ecobank Nig Plc Merchant Bankers.
during the course of our auditing I discovered a floating fund in an account
opened in the bank in 2001 and since then nobody has operated on this
account again, after going through some old files in the records I
discovered that the owner of the account died without a [heir] hence the
money is floating and if I do not remit this money out urgently it will be
forfeited.

The owner of this account is Mr.JAMES.T.DOUGLAS, a foreigner and he died,
since 2001. And no other person knows about this account or any thing
concerning it, the account has no other beneficiary and my investigation
proved to me as well that James.T.Douglas until his death was the owner of .
Coy.(pty).

We will start the first transfer with eight million five hundred thousand
united state dollars[8,500.000.00] upon successful transaction without any
disappoint from your side, we shall re-apply for the payment of the
remaining rest amount of ( 6,000.000.00 USD) to your account.

The amount involved is (14,500.000.00 USD) forteen million five hundred
thousand United States Dollars, what is to first transfer 8,500.000.00 [
eight million five hundred thousnd United States Dollar ]from this money
into a safe foreigners account abroad before the rest, but I don't know any
foreigner.

I am only contacting you as a foreigner because this money cannot be
approved to a local person here, without valid international foreign
passport, but can only be approved to any foreigner with valid
international passport or drivers license and foreign A/c because the money
is in US dollars and the former owner of the A/c Mr.James.T.Douglas is a
foreigner too, and the money can only be approved into a foreign A/c.

I got your contact address from my country chamber of commerce, so please
reply urgently so that I will inform you the next step to take urgently.
Send also your private telephone and fax number including the full details
of the account to be used for the remittance.

I need your full co-operation to make this work and utmost confidentialy is
required until we can get this fund into your nominated account. With my
influence and my colleague in the bank

we can transfer this money to any foreign reliable account, which you can
provide with assurance that this money will be intact pending our physical
arrival in your country for sharing.

The bank official will destroy all documents of transaction immediately you
receive the money in your account

I will use my position and influence to obtain all legal approvals for
onward transfer of this money to your account with appropriate clearance
from the relevant ministries and foreign exchange departments.

At the conclusion of this business, you will be given 40% of the total
amount, 55% will be for us, while 5% will be for expenses both parties might
have incurred during the process of transferring.

I look forward to your earliest reply. my private emailbox
is:taiwobalogun34@yahoo.com
Regards,
Taiwo Balogun


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