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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: "Mr.George Akande" <akg1956@rediffmail.com> (may be fake)
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 12:27:42 +0100
Subject: URGENT ATTENTION

My dear Friend,

Best compliments.

I am Mr. GEORGE AKANDE, Deputy Manager, Credit Controls of Oceanic bank
international Ltd, Lagos Nigeria. There is a very urgent business
transaction that requires confidentiality and trust which I want you and I
to handle as a joint business venture for our mutual benefit. But please
assure me that you will be as honest as I read you to be. It is in my
desperate attempt to find a way to handle this very urgent business,
which has made me to contact you immediately I got your contact.I
therefore hasten to send you this very confidential and very urgent business
proposal. One of the Bank's foreign customers, operated a fixed deposit
in my bank . The total fixed amount was US$19.2m (Nineteen Million two
hundred Thousand United States Dollars) I served as his account officer.
But at the maturity period, I sent a routine notification to his
forwarded address but got no reply. After some months, the bank sent a
reminder and finally it was discovered from the Petrol-Chemical Company,
Eleme Port Harcourt where he worked as contractor that he died in
anautomobile crash in November of 2000 with his wife and two children.
On further investigation, I was surprised to discover that he died without
any Will.

We have made all efforts and attempts to trace any of his relation but
to no avail. Nor did he state any next of kin or relation in all the
official documents in my bank. This sum of US$19.2M is still lying as
dormant account in my bank. According to Nigerian law, after five years,
the money will revert to the ownership of the Government if nobody comes
forward to claim it. And I do not want this money to go to Government
Treasury. This is the situation, and my intention now is to look for a
foreigner who will stand in as beneficiary and or next of kin to claim
this money.

This is simple. All you have to do now is to provide me immediately
details of your bank account for me to arrange the proper money transfer
documents.The money will then be transferred into the account for you
and I to share it and have it for ourselves. For your participation, you
will have a total of 40% of the funds as your commission. If however,
you are not satisfied with this percentage, you have the liberty to
negotiate with me. In anticipation of any expenses that may come up in
the course of the transaction either from your side or from my own side,
5% of the total sum has been set aside to take care of every expenses both
from your side and from my side. You will then release the balance of
55% to me for my personal use.

I will use my position and connection in the bank here to do all the
paper work to enhance the transaction. Please reply immediately under
strict confidentiality and be rest assured that this transaction is for
our mutual benefit.

Please do not expose this deal if you are not interested because if you
do, it will cost me my job, and the whole 20 years I have worked in the
Banking industry will be thrown down the drains. I am due for
retirement very soon and that is why I want to do this immediately,
to enable me to have enough money as I intend to run as a Senator in
my country after retirement.

I await your urgent response and note that you are the only person I
have contacted for now and any delay will make me to contact another
person for the same transaction.

Thank you.
Mr.George Akande




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