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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: rsuleiman@zipmail.com.br
Date: Mon, 7 Aug 2006 06:41:36 -0700
Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?TREAT=20URGENT?=

My Dear Friend,

I am Barrister Rabiu Suleiman Jr, the Personal Attorney to Mr. Edward Smith,
a national of your country ,who was an oil consultant/contractor with the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC).

On the 21st of April 2003, my client,his wife and their three children were
involved in a car accident along Sagamu/Lagos Express Road,unfortunately
they all lost their lives in the event of the accident, since then I have
made several enquiries to your Embassy to locate any of my client's extended
relatives, this has also proved unsuccessful, after these several successful
attempts, I decided to trace his relatives over the Internet to locate any
member of his family but of no avail, hence I contacted you.

I contacted you to assist in repartrating the money and property left behind
by my client before they get confiscated or declared unserviceable by the
bank where this huge deposits were lodged. Particularly, the Bank where
the deceased had an account valued at about $15 million U.S dollars(Fifteen
million us dollars). Conseqently, the bank issued me a notice to provide
the next of kin or have the account confiscated within the next ten official
working days, since I have been unsuccesfull in locating the the relatives
for over 2 years now.

I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin of the deceased since
you are from the same country so that the proceeds of this account valued
at $15 million U.S dollars can be paid to you and then you and me can share
the money, 50% to me and 45% to you,while 5% should be for expenses or tax
as your government may require. I have all necessary legal documents that
can be used to back up any claim we may make.

All I require is your honest co-operation to enable us see this deal through.
I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that
will protect you from any breach of the law. Please get in touch with me
by email to enable us discuss further.

Yours Faithfully.

Barrister Rabiu Suleiman Jr.
Address:No.1555, Allen Ave.Ikeja,
Lagos-Nigeria.




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