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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: "Dr. Williams Coker" <nnpc10@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <c_williams1920@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2007 12:35:00 +0000
Subject: Urgent Business Please Call Me



Good day, I am Dr. Williams Coker, the Director and Funds Co-coordinator of the finance/Contract Department of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Terms of Reference. My term of reference involves the financial management and disbursement of proceeds from petroleum products and also the award of contracts to multinational companies. My office is also saddled with responsibility of screening categorization and Prioritization of projects embarked upon by this Ministry as well as feasibility study for selected projects and supervising the project consultants involved. A breakdown of the fiscal expenditure by this office as at the end of the fourth Fiscal quarter of 2004 indicates that this Ministry paid out a whooping sum of US$736M (Seven hundred and Thirty Six Million United States Dollars) to successful contract beneficiaries. The Ministry is now compiling beneficiaries to be paid by second half of 2007. The crux of this letter is that the finance/contract department of this Ministry Deliberately over-inflated the contract value of the various contracts awarded. In the Cause of disbursements, this department has been able to track down the sum of US$55.5M (Fifty Five Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) as the over-invoiced sum. This money is now lying and floating in the Ministry's domiciliary account with the Apex Bank, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). My colleagues and I now want to quickly transfer these funds to a safe nominated account for possible investment abroad. We are not allowed as a matter of Government policy to operate any foreign account because of our status as Civil/public servants. Hence the need to solicit for your account to transfer this fund into. We have also evolved a sharing formula as follows: (1) 25% for the foreign account owner (2) 75% for my colleagues and I Internationally during the course of this transaction. Furthermore, we shall be relying on your advice as regards investments of part of our share in any blue-chip Company in your country. Be informed that this business is genuinely and 100% safe considering the high-powered government official involved. Send your private fax, telephone numbers and your mobile telephone if any. This is to facilitate easy communication with you. Contact me strictly by email: c_williams1920@yahoo.com. Looking forward to healthy business relationship with you. Sincerely Dr. Williams Coker. 234-8082087806
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