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: "edos afen" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <edosafen2009@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:28:09 -0400
Subject: thanks

Urgent and Confidential

It is with trust and confidentiality, that I make this urgent and
important business proposal to you. It gives me so much enthusiasm to
write this letter to you. It is all in a view to soliciting for
assistance to enable us execute a venture of mutual benefit.

My name is Mr. Edos Afen a Central Bank of Zimbabwea employee.

During the last political disturbance by the Government held by president
Robert Mugabe, (I and my other colleagues worked out over US$14.5MuSD
(Fourteen Million Five Hundred United States Dollars Only) as over invoiced
and inflated payment for election materials and the funds is now with the security company
in a north American country for safe keeping.

Now that we are not sure of the future of this country, due to the
cry of sanction by world leaders in and around the world. For the
brutal take over of white people farm resident in Zimbabwea by the
Administration, and the lack of purpose in the administration, my
friends and I have decided to invest this fund wisely. I am to put
all the needful together to ensure a successful transfer of the funds to a
designated account. Acting in concert with few trusted other officers.

We need the assistance of a foreign company/persons to push this
money into their accounts. You will do very well with what we have in
mind. Your share of whatever we succeed in putting into your account
will be 20% of the total sum, while 70% will be for us and 10% will
be mapped out for any expenses incurred by both parties in the
process of the transfer, we require you, except your willingness to
assist us.

I will refrain from giving out more operational details, until I
receive your reply. Since time is of the essence to us, reply this
letter quickly so as to know what next to do, even if this letter
does not meet your approval, please inform me. There is no risk
involved, as we have done our homework carefully. Looking forward to
hearing from you.
Email:edosafen2009@gmail.com

Anti-fraud resources: