joewein.net   joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days
  jwSpamSpy

Home
About Us
Spam
419/Nigeria
Fraud
Contact

"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: "usman beko" <usman_beko2005@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: usmanbeko2@yahoo.com
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2006 09:16:16 +0100
Subject: REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP

FALOMO OFFICE COMPLEX
IKOYI, LAGOS – NIGERIA
Date: 27th Jan 2006


Dear Sir,

REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP

First, I must solicit your confidence in this transaction. This is by
virtue of its nature as being utterly confidential and top secret. You have
been recommended by an associate who assured me in confidence of your
ability and reliability to prosecute a transaction of great
magnitude,requiring maximum confidence.

We are top officials of the Federal Government Contract Review Panel who are
interested in the importation of goods into our country with funds which are
presently trapped in Nigeria. In order to commence this business we solicit
your assistance to enable us transfer into your account the said trapped
funds.

The source of this fund is as follows: During the defunct Military Regime
here in Nigeria, the government officials set up companies and awarded
themselves contract which were grossly over-invoiced in various Ministries.
The present Civilian Government constituted a Contract Review Panel and we
have identified a lot of inflated contract funds which are presently
floating in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). However, by virtue of our
position as civil servants and members of this Panel, we cannot acquire this
money in our names(as we are not privilage,by law to own/operate foreign
accounts). I have therefore, been delegated as a matter of trust by my
colleaguesof the Panel,to look for an Overseas partner into whose account we
would
transfer the sum of 26,400,000.00 (Twenty Six Million, Four Hundred Thousand
US.dollars). Hence we are writing you this letter, we have agreed to share
the money thus:
1. 20% for the account owner (you)
2. 70% for us (the officials)
3. 10% to be used in settling taxation and allocal and foreign expenses.
It is from this 70% that we wish to commence the importation business,
please note that this transaction is 100% safe and we hope to commence the
transfer latest in ten (10) banking days from the date of receipt of the
following information by email.

i. Your Bankers Name and Address.
ii. Your Account Number.
iii.Your Tel/Fax Numbers.

The above information will enable us write letters of claim and job
description respectively. This way we will use your company's name to apply
for payments and re-award the contract in your company's name. We are
looking forward to doing business with you and solicit your confidentiality
in this transaction.

Please acknowledge the receipt of this letter using this Email
address,(usmanbeko2@yahoo.com) OR you can call me on my telephone number,
234-803-3464787 for more information about the deal. I will bring you into
the complete picture of this pending project when I have heard from you.

I AWAIT YOUR PROMPT RESPONSE .

Yours Faithfully,

Alhaji Usman Beko.


Anti-fraud resources: