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: "IBRAHIM TOFA" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <ibrahimtofa@SIFY.COM>
Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:55:45 +0100
Subject: BUSINESS CONTACT

Dear Good Day,

I am Mr. Ibrahim Tofa Executive Director of the AFRICA DEVELOPMENT BANK (ADB) COTE D VOIRE. An Iraqi named Besem Faruak, a business man made a numbered fixed deposit of ($15.400,00.00) for 18 calendar months, Fifteen Million,four Hundred Thousand United State Dollars only in my branch.

Upon maturity several notice was sent to him, even during the war,five years ago (2006). Again after the war another notification was sent and still no response came from him. We later found out that Besem Faruak, and his family had been killed during the war in Gunfire that hit their home at MOSUL where his personal oil well was.

After further investigation it was also discovered that Besem Faruak,did not declare any next of kin in his official papers including the paper work of his bank deposit.

And he also confided in me the last time he was at my office that no one except me knew of his deposit in my bank. So,FIFTEEN MILLION FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND United State Dollars is still lying in my bank and no one will ever come forward to claim it. What bothers me is that according to the laws of my country at the expiration five years six months the funds will revert to the ownership of the IVORIAN Government if nobody applies to claim the funds.

My proposal, I am prepared to place you as the next of kin in a position to instruct AFRICA DEVELOPMENT BANK to release the deposit to you THROUGH OUR INTERNATIONAL PAYMENT BANK, CAYMAN INTERNATIONAL BANK OF LONDON as the closest surviving relation. Upon receipt of the deposit, I am prepared to share the money with you in half. That is: I will simply nominate you as the next of kin and have them release the deposit to you. We share the percentage 50/50.

I would have gone ahead to ask the funds be released to me, but that would have drawn a straight line in my involvement in claiming the deposite. I assure you that I could have the deposit released to you within a few days.

I will simply inform the bank of the final closing of the file relating to Besem Faruak, I will then officially communicate with my Bank and instruct them to release the deposit to you. With these, all is done.

I am aware of the consequences of this proposal.should you not be interested in executing this with me,but if you are intrested indicate your interest by sending me your profile and your contact informations so as to effect the legal changes on the letter of Administration authenticating that you are the next of kin/beneficiary

Sincerely,
Mr.Ibrahim Tofa


Anti-fraud resources: