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: "GEORGE KOFI" <georgekofi50@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2006 21:15:04 -0700
Subject: RE: SWIFT TRANSFER OF US$ 4.5 MILLION INTEREST INTO YOUR ACCOUNT.

International Transfer
Processing Department
REF: HSBCBA/GHA/ACC/01/06
Trust Towers Asylum Down 2nd Flot
PMB CCCI Cantonments, Accra Ghana
E-mail: georgekofi50@hotmail.com

Dear Sir,Madam
SWIFT HSBC 22

RE: SWIFT TRANSFER OF US$ 4.5 MILLION INTEREST INTO YOUR ACCOUNT.

Sometime ago, in our bank your contract money was brought to our bank from
Economic Community of West African Foreign Contractor Payment Panel made of
with the following countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Togo, Rep.Benin, Senegal,
Ivory-coast, Gambia, Mali, etc.

(Ecowas), AND AFTER SOME PERIOD, They call the fund bank to their treasury
in World Bank. For the period of time this money was in our bank, it
generated an interest of US$4.5 Million, which we considered your long
suffering as one of the West African Countries contractor that have not
received his/her payment and we decide to pay you this interest fund via
Swift Transfer into your account.

What we need from you now is any form of your identification for example;
your international passport number or youre driving license number, then
your telephone and fax number for easy communication.

In view of this you are hereby instructed to contact this office immediately
you receive this fax message and reconfirm your bank particulars.

Contact me on my direct EMAIL:georgekofioffice@yahoo.com expecting your
immediately response.

BEST REGARD

MR GEORGE KOFI
HEAD OF TREASURY DEPARTMENT
HSBC BANK ACCRA GHANA

_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE!
http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/


Anti-fraud resources: