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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: jamesmensah001 <jamesmensah001@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 8 Aug 2009 13:18:01 -0700
Subject: OPEN LETTER FROM GHANA COMMERCIAL BANK. ACCRA, GHANA.

Dear Friend,

I am Mr. James Mensah, I work with the Ghana Commercial Bank of
Ghana. I am the Regional manager of Accra Branch.

During my presentation of Sequel, the third quarter financial report,
December, 2004, I discovered that my branch made Four Million and
Three Hundred and Fifty Thousand United States Dollars
($4,350,000.00); from the transactions accruing to the account of the
Inland Revenue Service (IRS).

I intentionally delayed the fund until now to make sure I cleared all
link to this money before contacting you and is absolutely free from
any Drug Trafficking and Anti-terrorist link and can be converted into
any type of Currency of your choice before the effect of the transfer.

But before that I have diverted the funds into Escrow Call Account
with no beneficiary. Meanwhile as you know I can not be directly
connected to this money for obvious reasons. So my contacting you is
to assist me receive the funds in your bank account in your country;
which I know is possible if you liaise properly with me and I
guarantee you will get 30% of the total funds as your benefit, for
helping me to pull the fund out.

The transfer would be via swift and it will be a Bank-to-Bank wired
transfer. All I need from you is to stand claim as the original
depositor of this fund. I will compute your particulars as the person
who made the deposit in my branch, so that my head office will
immediately order the transfer to your designated bank account upon
your application/request for transfer.
Mail me back if you think we can work together .

Email. gha.comercial@eze.co.za


Thanks for your understanding and co-operation.

God Bless You.

James Mensah (Mr.)

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