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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: rufus zuma <rufuszuma@k.ro>
Reply-To: rufuszuma@katamail.com
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2006 17:39:20 +0100
Subject: Private and Confidential.


AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK
PRETORIA
SOUTH AFRICA.
TEL/FAX:00 27 1150 76771
EMAIL:RUFUSZUMA@KATAMAIL.COM


Dear Sir,

My name is Mr. Rufus Zuma. I work as a senior investment consultant for the
African Development Bank of South Africa. I also work as part of the regional
team that covers the entire Asian region. I had taken pains to find your
contact through personal endeavours.

Approximately five years ago, an investor - Deceased nine months ago) invested
a total of US$12.5M (Twelve Million, five hundred thousand United State
Dollars) with my department. With interest at today's value, the said invested
fund is now worth a little under US$30M (Twenty Nine Million, Eight Hundred
and Fifty Five Thousand United State dollars).

The late investor's Attorney/Lawyer notified my department of the sudden death
(Car Accident) of the investor. He (the attorney) also expresses concern that
investor had died without a will and he has no details of any surviving
relatives. The lawyer has now requested my department to check our records to
clarify who Late investor may have named as his next of Kin on the investment
application. Fortunately, or rather unfortunately, the person named as next of
kin, was his girl friend who also died in the car accident. I have not yet
notified the lawyer that the next of Kin was the girl friend. I virtually have
another 7 working days to do so.

Should I notify the lawyer of my findings, automatically, the invested funds

will be confiscated by the Singapore Government? This I do not mind, my
concerns and worries is that the funds once released from our bank, it will be
diverted else where by senior Singapore government functionaries for their
personal gains. On the basis of my worries, my immediate boss and I decided to
act fast by contacting and inviting you to work with us posing as a relative

of the deceased, since you share same last name as the late investor. With our
insider's privileged information, the funds can be paid to you as the only
surviving relative. We have all the information and guidance to enable you and
we realize this opportunity. We have evaluated the risk analysis and we are
convinced that the risk element is zero, as long as you maintain 100%
confidentiality.

As you should understand, I am taking a great risk contacting you and making

this proposal. Therefore, you should understand why I must say no more about

this transaction until I receive a call, email or fax from you confirming
receipt of this letter.

Once secured communication has been established between you and us, detailed

clarifications will be dealt with, such as what each party stand to benefit
and time scale and procedures. Time is not in our favour. Please establish
secured communication with me through any of the above means.

Yours truly

Rufus Zuma.


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