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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: "james ego" <james_ego300@msn.com>
Reply-To: james_ego@latinmail.com
Date: Sat, 17 Dec 2005 16:07:39 +0000
Subject: GOOD DAY,

FROM THE DESK OF MR JAMES EGO
NO 11 JOLAMI STREET VICTORIA ISLAND
LAGOS NIGERIA
PRIVATE EMAIL-james_ego@latinmail.com

GOOD DAY,

I am Mr.James Ego, Branch Manager with STANDARD TRUST BANK (S.T.B) I am
writing this letter to ask for your support and cooperation to carry out
this business opportunity in my department. We discovered an abandoned sum
of ($25.5 million u.s. dollars) in an account that belongs to one of our
foreign customers Late Engineer David, who died in the Ikeja bomb blast of
the January 27, 2002 my client, his wife, and their two children were
involved in Ikeja bomb blast unfortunately they lost their lives in the
process of the bomb blast.

Since we heard of his death, we have been expecting his next-of-kin to come
over and put claims for his money as the heir, because we cannot release
the fund from his account unless someone applies for claim as the
next-of-kin to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines.
Unfortunately, neither their family member nor distant relative has ever
appeared to claim the said fund.

Upon this discovery, I and other officials in my department have agreed to
make business with you and release the total amount into your account as the
heir of the fund and no one came for it or discovered he maintained
account with our bank,otherwise the fund will be returned to the banks
treasury as unclaimed fund. We have agreed that our ratio of sharing will
be as stated thus; 30 % for you as foreign partner,65% for us the officials
in my department and 5 % for the settlement of all local and foreign
expenses incurred during the course of this business.

Upon the successful completion of this transfer, I and one of my colleagues
will come to your country and mind our share. It is from our 65% we intend
to import Agricultural Machineries into my country as a way of recycling the
fund. To commence this transaction, we require you to immediately indicate
your interest by a return e-mail and enclose your

1,YOUR FULL NAMES
2.PRIVATE TELEPHONE/FAX
3.CONTACT ADDRESS

to enable us file letter of claim to the appropriate departments for
necessary approvals before the transfer can be made.Note also, this
transaction must be kept STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
because of its nature.Please reply to my private email address
james_ego@latinmail.com

I look forward to receiving your prompt response.

Mr. JAMES EGO (S.T.B)

For confirmation, please refer to the links below:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2718295.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/worald/africa/2698081.stm
http://www.worldsocialist-cwi.org/index2.html?/eng/2002/02/02.html


Anti-fraud resources: