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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: "Briggs Benson" <bensonbriggs06@gmail.com>
Reply-To: briggs_bensonprivate@hotmail.com
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2008 04:04:50 -0700
Subject: From ICB Financial Group Holdings AG,


THE REGIONAL BRANCH MANAGER
INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL BANK OF GHANA,
PRIVATE MAIL BAG NO.16, ACCRA GHANA

Good day,

This email transmission is coming to you from my residence because of it's
confidential status. However, this letter contains some confidential
materials and should be deleted from your mail box indicating that you are
not interested concerning the proposal. For the formality of this
transaction I would appreciate introducing myself, My name is Mr.Briggs
Benson, I am the regional manager of International Commercial Bank of Ghana
Kumasi branch of Ghana. I got your information in the Internet this
morning, On a recent bank conference with other West African countries held
in Lome the capital city of Togo in West Africa. I write you this proposal
in good faith; I am 47 years old married with Two lovely kids. I am a man
of peace. in my next mail i will send to you my family picture for you to
know whom you are going to deal with,

I have packaged a financial transaction that will benefit you and me, as the
regional manager of the International Commercial Bank it is my duty to send
in a financial report to my head office in the capital city Accra at the end
of each business year. On the course of 2007 business report, I discovered
that my branch in which I am the manager made Ten million Two hundred and
fifty thousand united state dollars ($10,250,000.00) which my head office
are not aware of and will never be aware of. I have placed this funds on
what we call escrow call account with no beneficiary. As an officer of this
bank I cannot be directly connected to this money, so my aim of contacting
you is to assist me receive this money in your bank account and get 30% of
the total funds as commission.

There are practically no risks involved, it will be a bank-to-bank transfer
and all I need from you is to stand and claim as the original depositor of
these funds as who made the deposit with my branch so that my head office
can order the transfer to your designated bank account. If you accept this
offer to work with me, and you find this
proposal Suitable for you do furnish me with the following information.

Full Name.......................... ..............................


Contact Address....................... ..............................


Private Telephone Number........................
..............................


Age........................... ..............................

Occupation and Position...................... ..............................


I will appreciate it very much, If this proposal is acceptable by you,do not
make undue advantage of the trust I have bestowed on you, and I assure you
we can achieve it successfully.

Thank you in advance and May God bless you and your family.
Yours truly,
Mr.Briggs Benson
ICB Financial Group Holdings AG,

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