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: <mromaru@ciudad.com.ar>
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 06:04:42 -0200
Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?TREAT=20AS=20URGENT=20AND=20CONFIDENTIAL.?=

TREAT AS URGENT AND CONFIDENTIAL.
From The Desk Of Mr Omaru Ahmed.
Bill And Exchange Manager
Bank Of Africa
Ouagadougou-Burkina Faso.
Tel. 0022678248322.

Dear Friend,

I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance department of BANK OF AFRICA.I am writting to seek your coperation over this business deal.In my department, I discovered an abandoned sum of $31.8million USD (Thirty one Million eight hundred thousand United States Dollars) only, in an acount that belongs to one of our foreign customers who died along with his entire family in a plane crash that took place in Kenya,East Africa,the Late DR. GEORGE BRUMLEY,a citizen of Atlanta, United States of America but naturalised in Burkinafaso, West Africa and contractor with ECOWAS,(ECONOMIC COMMUNITY OF WEST AFRICAN STATES).

Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because it cannot be release dunless somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines but unfortunately, all his supposed next of kin or relation died alongside with him at the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim. It is therefore upon this discovery that i now decided to make this businness proposal to you and release the money to you via your foreign bank account as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and this money could go into the Bank treasury as unclaimed Bill.

The Banking law and guideline here stipulate that if such money remained unclaimed after 7 years, the money will be transfered into the Bank's treasury as unclaimed fund.The request for your assistance and maximum co-operation as a foreign citizen to stand as the next of kin in this business is occasioned by the fact that the deceased customer was a foreigner and a Burkinabe cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner.40 % of this money will be for you as my foreign partner,in respect to the provision of a foreign account. 5 % will be set aside for expenses incured during the business and 55 % would be for me.There after I will come over to your country for disbursement of the fund according to the percentages indicated.

Therefore to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you as arranged,you must apply first to the bank as the relation or next of kin to the deceased,indicating your claims and wherein the money will be remitted. Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email the text of application which you will fill and forward to the office of the foreign remittance director of the bank of africa. I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is strictly confidential and i will use my position in this Bank to effect a hitch free transfer of the fund.You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive this letter on my private phone number: 0022678248322. Trusting to hear from you immediately.

Please , visit the website below for more informations about the Plane Crash and the tragic death of the deceased and his entire family, Late DR. GEORGE BRUMLEY.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/07/20/kenyacrash/index.html

Yours Faithfully,
Mr Omaru Ahmed


Anti-fraud resources: