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: "Mr. John Hawrk" <john_hawrk@rediffmail.com> (may be fake)
Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 17:41:40 +0400
Subject: waiting for your reply

Dear Friend,

I write to inform you of my desire to acquire estates
or landed properties in your country on behalf of the
Director of Contract and Finance Allocations of the
Department of Transportation in South Africa.
Considering his very strategic and influential
position, he wants the transaction to be strictly confidential as much
as
possible. He further wants his identity to remain undisclosed at least
for
now, until the completion of transaction. Hence our desire to have an
overseas agent.
I have therefore been directed to inquire if you would
agree to act as our overseas agent in order to actualize this transaction.
The deal in brief is that the funds with which we
intend to carry out our proposed investments in your
country is presently in a coded account at the South Africa Apex bank
(South Africa Reserve Bank) and we need your assistance to transfer the funds
to your country in a convenient bank account that will be provided by you
before we can put the funds into use in your country.
For this, you shall be considered to have executed a
contract for the Department of Transportation for
which payment should be effected to you by Department, The contract sum
of which shall run into US$15.5Million (fifteen Million, Five Hundred thousand
Dollars) of which your share shall be 20% if you agree to be our overseas agent.
As soon as payment is effected, and the amount
mentioned above is
successfully transfered into your account, we intend
to use our own share in acquiring some estates and
setting up trust accounts abroad. For this too you
shall also serve as our agent.
In the light of the above, I would like you to forward to
me the following
information's:
1. Your company name and address if any.
2. Your personal fax number.
3. Your personal telephone number for easy communication.
You are requested to communicate your accpetance of
this proposal through this email. After which we shall
discuss in details the modalities for seeing this
transaction through.
Your quick response will be highly appreciate. Thanks
in anticipation of your cooperation.

Yours faithfully,
Mr. John Hawrk




Anti-fraud resources: