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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: =?big5?q?Barr=20Tony=20Bimpe?= <okoh.frank1988@yahoo.com.hk>
Reply-To: tony.bimpe@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:50:00 -0800 (PST)
Subject: CLASSIFIED INFORMATION !!!


§Ú¦³·sªº¹q¶l¦a§}¡I§A²{¥i¹q¶lµ¹§Ú¡Gokoh.frank1988@yahoo.com.hk



- Dear Friend,Kindly accept my apology for sending unsolicited mail to you. I believe you are a highly respected personality, considering the fact that I sourced your profile from a human resource profile database on your country. Though, I do not know to what extent you arefamiliar with events. Well, I am Barrister Tony Bimpe , a Solicitor. I am the Personal Attorney to Mr. Johnson , who is used to be an expatraite in nig before his death . On the 28st of Dec 2008, his wife and their three children were involved in a car accident along Lokoja-Abuja Road Express Road . Unfortunately, they all lost their lives in the event of the accident. Since then I have made several enquiries to your Embassy to locate any of my client's relatives, this has also proved unsuccessful. After these several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to trace his relatives over the Internet to locate any member of his family but to no avail, hence, I contacted you to assist in repatriating the money left behind by my client in a Bank. Particularly, the Finance House where the deceased deposited the US$7.2 Seven Million Two Hundred Thousand United States Dollars.the bank knows me very well and has ask me to present some one to claim the fund left my late client as they all know I am his attorney. Consequently, this Bank issued me a notice to provide the Next of Kin to claim the US$7.2 Seven Million Two Hundred Thousand United States Dollars in their custody within the next ten official working days. Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for 1 year now, I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin of the deceased to claim the fund as the Next of Kin to him so that the Bank will transfer the fund to your account. Upon receipt of the fund, I will come over to your country to meet with you for the disbursement of the fund and then you and I will share the money in this order: 70% will be for me, 30% will be for you. I have all the necessary legal documents that can back our claim we may make with the Bank. All I require is your honest co-operation to enable us seeing this deal through. I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law..Best regards.Barrister Tony Bimpe,Principal Attorney.


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