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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: "James Madu" <jamesmadu2j@hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 01 Oct 2006 16:43:02 +0100
Subject: Beneficial business that will not cost you any money.

Dear Friend,

Business that will not cost you any money but beneficial.

Before I introduce you to this deal, let me make it clear to you that this's
a beneficial business that will not cost you any money because I have a
sponsor who will invest in the business by taking care of all expenses
involved. What this mean is that nobody will ask you to pay any money from
your pocket.
Why we need is that a foreigner has to act as the beneficiary so that he
will receive the contract fund.

Let me make it known to you that this business is genuine and this's why we
have decided to bring in a sponsor who will as we are sure of what we are
pursuing.

This's the deal.
We are on political appointment and were mandated to verify contracts that
were awarded by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
We discovered contract that was executed by foreign contractor but was
inflated (over-invoiced) by officials here to the tune of Eighteen Million
United States Dollars (US$18,000,000.00).
The contractor have been paid his main contract money but the over-invoiced
one of US$18 million was abandoned by those who inflated it and has not been
paid to anybody.

What we want now is an honest and straihtforward foreigner who will help us
to receive the abandoned inflated money as the beneficiary and this why we
decided to contact you.
This money will be paid to you and we will come to meet you in your country
and share the fund.
We'll give you 30% of the total money.

This's a golden opportunity for us and we don't want to miss it as this's
God's sent.

I'll be expecting your favourable reply. When you reply, I'll let you know
the next thing to do so that we can proceed on the deal.
This is also my personal email address and you can reply through it
jamesmadu2c@yahoo.com

My regards.

James Madu.

_________________________________________________________________
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