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: usmanbello abacha <usmanbello_nig@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2006 14:49:47 -0800 (PST)
Subject: hi....


I have a new email address!You can now email me at: usmanbello_nig@yahoo.com

Hi.... my name is Usman Bello Abacha, the first son of the late military president of nigeria (Gen. Sani Abacha)

my aim to mailing you this time is to seek your assistance towards relocating($4.7m) the money my father had kept in a security company , but as it is now, the president of nigeria as at now has been taking everything my father had left behind for us before his demise saying he had loothed them from the country's account which is all lies, cause my father has been wealthy even before he became the president of this country and the history of my family had indicated my grandfather as the most succesful cocoa farmer across the nation during his days and that has donated alot to the riches found in our family today, but the government had decided to ruin us out, they even got my brother locked in jail for three years over a crime he did not commit and now searching to find the source of the family's prosperity as they next target was on how to locate this money and take it, meanwhile the money has been in a security company where my father had kept it, but now the family had de!
cided to relocate this money into another foreing bank where it would be till all this is over and thats the reason im raeching you with this since im here, and also asking your trustworthness in this transaction as you stood a chance of taking a 30 % of this money. if you can help us out, please reply this mail as soon as possible so that i can give you the control pin to and the security company's phone numbers and email address so you can contact them to comfirm this transaction,and then after that, i will introduce you to our family lawyer, the man who is incharge of all my fathers accets for some neccesary documents he had to send to you concerning that money and how to move it from the security company, but please i will need you to re-assure me that nothing will happen to this money as it is the only hope of this family's survival and also a way of building a relationship with you.

thanks for your understanding and may the great Allah bless you.

sincerely yours...

Usman Abacha, on behalf of the family

- usmanbello abacha


Anti-fraud resources: