joewein.net   joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days
  jwSpamSpy

Home
About Us
Spam
419/Nigeria
Fraud
Contact

"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: "FRED FIFAJI" <fredfifaj05@ig.com.br>
Reply-To: ff.fredfifaj@yahoo.fr
Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2008 12:38:23 +0100
Subject: FROM FRED FIFAJI


FROM FRED FIFAJI
THE HEAD OF BILL AND EXCHANGE DEPT., AFRICAN
DEVELOPMENT BANK (ADB)
COTONOU, BENIN REPUBLIC, WEST AFRICA
TELEPHONE: 00229 97068111

STRICTLY PERSONAL

I know that this mail will come to you as a surprise as we have never met
before. My name is Fred Fifaji. I am the bill and exchange manager in
African Development Bank. I hope that you will not expose or betray this
trust and confidence that I am about to repose in you for the mutual benefit
of our families.
I am writing in respect of a foreign customer of our Bank (Mr Jang Seajoon)
who perished along with his next of kin with Korean Air Line, flight number
801 with the whole passengers on 6th of august 1997 and for your perusal you
can view this site: http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9708/06/guam.passenger.list
Since the demise of this our customer, I personally have watched with keen
interest to see the next of kin but all has proved abortive as no one has
come to claim his funds of US$35M (Thirty five million United States
Dollars) which has been with our branch for a very long time.
On this note, I decided to seek for whom his name shall be used as the Next
of Kin since nobody is coming for the fund again. The Banking ethics here do
not allow such money to stay more than 11 years, because the money will be
recalled to our Banks treasury as unclaimed fund after this period.
In view of this, I contacted a friend of mine who works with the Chamber of
Commerce and Industries to assist me in getting a reliable and trusted
partner who would submit an application as the next of kin or business
partner to the late customer of the bank.
The reason for a foreigner in the business is for the fact that the deceased
man was a foreigner and it is not authorized by the law guiding our Bank for
a citizen of this country to make the claim of the fund.So the request for
you as a foreigner to come into the business is necessary, it will
facilitate the release and transfer of the funds smoothly to your nominated
bank account as the only surviving relation/partner to the deceased.
If you can conveniently assure me of your ability to keep this business very
secret and confidential, you can write back to me giving me your
telephone/fax numbers so that I can send to you the specimen application for
claims which you have to send to our bank. Please, note that upon the
successful transfer of the funds to your bank account, you shall be entitled
to 30% of the total funds while the rest will be given to me on arrival in
your country.
I will not fail to bring to your notice that this business is risk free and
doesn't have any negative implication. You should not entertain any fear as
all modalities for the smooth and easy transfer of this fund have been
finalized. This transaction will be completed within 14 bank working days
immediately we start the business.
Waiting for your urgent response and please kindly delete if you are not
interested.
Regards,
Fred Fifaji

Anti-fraud resources: