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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. Benson Adjei" <bemsonadj.ecobk@live.com>
Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2008 10:38:54 +0100
Subject: Esteemed Compliments,

Mr. Benson Adjei
Branch Manager
Eco Bank of Ghana
First Light Branch
Accra, Ghana
E-mail: bensonadj.ecobk@live.com

Esteemed Compliments,

I anticipate that you read this mail quickly and let me know
your opinion or willingness on this classified information
that I will release to you.

Firstly, I am a happily married man with 3 kids and
therefore I wouldn’t want to jeopardize this opportunity
to change my financial status that will give my family a
secured future. I am Mr. Benson Adjei, the branch manager of
the Eco Bank Of Ghana Limited, First Light Branch Accra. I
got your information during my search through the Internet.

I am 48 years of age and married with 3lovely kids. It may
interest you to hear that I am a man of PEACE and don’t
want problem, but I don't know how you will feel about this,
but I am telling you that this is real and you are not going
to regret after doing this transaction with me. I only hope
we can assist each other. But if you don't want this
business offer kindly forget it as I will not contact you
again. I have packaged a financial transaction Bank Of Ghana
Limited; it is my duty to send in a financial report to my
head office in the capital city Accra-Ghana at the end of
each year.

On the course of the last two years2006 end of year report,
I discovered that my branch in which I am the Manager made
Twelve Million Eight Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollar
[$12,850.000.00] which my head office are not aware of and
will never be aware of, Nor must they know that I am
involved in this transaction. I have since place this fund
on what we call SUSPENSE ACCOUNT without any beneficiary. As
an officer of the bank I can not be directly connected to
this money, so this informed my contacting you for us to
work so that you can assist receive this money into your
bank account for us to SHARE, while you will have 35% of the
total fund.

Note there are practically no risk involved, it will be bank
to bank transfer, all I need from you is to stand claim as
the original depositor of this fund who made the deposit
with our branch so that my Head office can order the
transfer to your designated bank account. If you accept this
offer to work with me, I will appreciate it very much. As
soon as I receive your kind response, I will give you
details on how we can achieve it successfully.

Please contact me via E-mail for more details:
{bensonadj.ecobk@live.com}

Best Regards,

Mr. Benson Adjei.

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