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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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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "favour benjamin" <benjaminfavour2@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2006 14:37:23 +0000
Subject: Happy new year.

FROM THE DESK OF MR BENJAMIN FAVOUR
ZENITH BANK OF NIGERIA
LAGOS NIGERIA
A PRIVATE BUSINESS PROPOSAL
I am MR BENJAMIN, The manager, Bills and Exchange at the Foreign Remittance
Department of the Zenith Bank of Nigeria Plc. 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 $15,000,000.00 Fifteen million
United States Dollars only)in an account that belongs to one of our foreign
customers who died along with his entire family in November 1997 in a plan
crash.
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 since no one came for it or discovered he
maintained account with our bank, otherwise the fund will be returned to the
bank treasury as unclaimed fund.
We have agreed that our ratio of sharing will be shared thus; 20 % for you
as foreign partner, 75 % for us the officials in my department and 5 % for
the settlement of all local and foreign expenses incurred by you and us
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 75 % 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 private contact telephone number, fax number full name and
address and your designated bank coordinates to enable us file letter of
claim to the appropriates departments for necessary approvals before the
transfer can be made.
Note also, this transaction must be kept STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL because of
its nature.

I look forward to receiving your prompt response.
MR BENJAMIN FAVOUR
Zenith Bank of Nigeria.
Reply to (benjaminfavour2@yahoo.com)

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