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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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: James Kofi <james02_kofi@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: james1_kofi@hotmail.com
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 06:22:41 -0800 (PST)
Subject: RE. Very Urgent Response.


I have a new email address!You can now email me at: james02_kofi@yahoo.com



- International commercial bank GhanaRing Road Accra GhanaDear Trusted One.It is my pleasure to seek for your assistance, and you should consider it very important. This is an opportunity that I can not live to miss. I am Mr.James Kofi, the director in charge of Auditing section of the International commercial bank Ghana, and also a Relationship Account Officer to Al Gupta Kassim, a Lebanese.He was a Seasoned Contractor with Ghana Cement Company in the Republic of Ghana, who unfortunately died in the plane crash of Union Transport Africans Flight Boeing 727 in Benin republic in December 25, 2003. You will read more stories about the crash on visiting this website: www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/12/26/benin.crash/Before his death on the 25th December 2003, Al Gupta Kassim, has a fixed deposit account with the bank and no other person knows about this account or any thing concerning it, the account has no other beneficiary and my investigation proved to me that his supposed next of kin died along with him in the crash. Since then I have made several enquiries to locate any of my clients extended relatives, this has also proved unsuccessful. After these several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to contact you. I contacted you to assist in repatriating the money left behind by my client before they get confiscated ordeclared unserviceable by the bank to the government. Consequently, Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for over 7 weeks now. I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin ,so that the proceeds of this account valued at US$15.5 million will be paid to you,while you and I will disburse the Inheritance fund in proportion of 70% to myself and 30% to yourself respectively.I sincerely request your honest co-operation to enable us see this transaction through. I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you and I from any breach of the law. while it will take only 14 working days the funds is in your nominated bank account.You should forward the following information to me for a quicker communication.a. Your Complete Name b. Private telephone numberUpon your confidential interest, respond through my alternative e-mail address james1_kofi@hotmail.comYours Sincerely.Mr.James Kofi.


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