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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: "hamed bello" <hamed_bello4@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2006 13:50:29 +0000
Subject: WITH DUE RESPECT

BANK OF AFRICA (BOA)OUAGADOUGOU BURKINA-FASO
FROM THE DESK MR HAMED BELLO
BANK OF AFRICA (BOA)
BILL AND EXCHANGE DEPARTMENT,
OUAGADOUGOU,BURKINA-FASO.

Dear Friend,

I know that this letter may come to you as a suprise.I got your contact
address from the Internet while I was searching for a busines partner.

My name is MR HAMED BELLO the Bill and Exchange Manager of the BANK OF
AFRICA (BOA) ,Ouagadouguo Burkina Faso.

In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of USD$20.5M(Twenty MILLION
FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND U.S.A DOLLARS). In an account that belongs to this our
foreign customer who died along with his wife and and children in the plane
crash.

Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of
kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless
somebody applies for it as the next of kin or relation to the deceased, as
indicated in our banking guidelines but unfortunately we learnt that all his
supposed next of kin died alongside with him in the plane crash leaving
nobody behind for the claim.

The request of foreigner in this transaction is necessary because our late
customer was a foreigner and a Burkinabe cannot stand as next of kin to a
foreigner.

On the account of your reliability and trust worthiness, I have decided to
contact you in order to transfer the said amount into your nominated bank
account, it's 100% risk free.

Upon receipt of the above mentioned, I will send to you by fax or e-mail a
TEXT OF APPLICATION which you shall re-type and fax to our foreign
remittance Department,for easy execution of the transaction. All necessary
documents shall be obtain on your behalf to back-up this claims.

Kindly contact me on for security reason and for more explanations and
possible means of transferring the fund into your account. If you accept our
offer I shall compensate you with 30% of the money, 60% goes to me and my
colleague, after which we shall visit your country for disbursement
according to the percentages indicated. I am assuring you that with my
position this money shall hit your account before 21 banking working days.

Send an e-mail as soon as you get this message, I will be waiting.

NOTE: THIS TRANSACTION IS STRICLY CONFIDENTIAL.

Thanks for your assistance in advance.

Your promt response will be highly appreciated.

Yours Sincerely,

MR HAMED BELLO

BILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGER,

BANK OF AFRICA

_________________________________________________________________
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