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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

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

Fraud email example:

From: "Eze Frank" <ezefrank7@msn.com>
Reply-To: engnr_frank@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2006 12:25:44 +0000
Subject: REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP

>From the desk of: Eng.Frank Ezechukwu
Executive Director/Financial Controller
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC)
Falomo Office Annex Lagos Nigeria

DEAR FRIEND,

REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP

I am the financial controller of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC). I got your Contact address from an associate working with the
Nigerian Export Promotion Council. I and my colleagues are ministry
officials in charge of offshore remittance in this Corporation (NNPC). We
are seeking your assistance to transfer of Forty Two Million
(US$42,000,000.00) to your account for further private investment.

This amount accrued from an over-invoiced contract amount for the
construction of an Oil Refinery Sub- stations in Nigeria in 1995 to
expatriate companies. The contract was originally valued for one Hundred and
Twenty Seven Million United States Dollar US$127,000,000.00) but we
manipulated the figure to read one Hundred and Sixty Nine Million United
States Dollars($169,000,000.00) The extra $42,000,000.00 is what we want to
transfer to your account.

This contract has been completely executed and the original contractors have
been paid all their contract bills less this $42,000,000.00 For your
assistance, we have agreed to remunerate you with 30% because it is
impossible for us to claim the amount here in Nigeria without foreign
collaboration. 5% has been mapped out for any miscellaneous expenses
incurred by either party during this business, and 65% for my colleagues and
myself.
It may interest you to know that four years ago, a similar transaction was
carried out with one Mr. Patrice Miller, the President of Craine
International Trading Corporation at number 135 East 57th Street, 28th
floor,New York.10022 with Mr. Patrice disappeared into thin air when he
received the money.

His Telephone and Telex numbers had been reallocated to other users by the
time we arrived New York for our share. This explains exactly why we will
make a concrete agreement between you and us, should you be willing to
assist in this deal. All modalities to effect the payment and subsequent
transfer of this money have been worked out. This transaction is 100% risk
free but requires 100 percent confidentiality.

This is a golden opportunity which must not be allowed to slip out of any
careless acts and utterances. We chose you for this transaction because we
believe that good friends can be discovered and businesses such as this
cannot be realized without trust. You can be rest assured that your security
has been considered before you were contacted.
I await your urgent response.

Best Regards,
Eng.Frank Ezechukwu


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