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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: "Mr. F.Quansah" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <proverbs1@voila.fr>
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 22:04:50 +0100
Subject: Merry Christmas.

Hello,

Obviously this is not the usual business you might have been used to but if you can take few moments to carefully read through this proposal, you’ll discover that after all it’s the end that justifies the means. As Private Investment Banker, I was introduced to the late Gabonese President, Alh. Omar Bongo on 28/09/2005 when he confidentially deposited the sum of $4,000,000 and 82 Carats of duly Certified Diamonds for safe keeping.

Unfortunately, Alhaji Bongo did not leave any beneficiary for this deposit which now means that no member of his family has information about this deposit and that’s my/our opportunity. I have decided to move the deposit into a suspense account without beneficiary and find a Partner overseas with whom I can legally apply to the bank for the conversion of the precious Minerals into Cash equivalent so that it can easily transferred into your bank Account with any difficulty as beneficiary/depositor. I have already submitted an audited approved end of the year Report for the year 2007/8 of my branch to our Corporate Office; this deposit will never be discovered.

As an officer of the bank I cannot directly claim/withdraw this money, but I want to use you as Front to claim the fund legally. Thus I am impelled to request for your assistance to receive this money into your bank account. I intend to part 40% of this fund to you while 60% shall be for me. I do need to stress that there are practically no risk involved in this transaction. The transaction will be a bank-to-bank transfer and I will apply for my annual Leave so that I can travel to meet you once transfer is confirmed into your account.

I will send you detail arrangement of the procedures that we shall apply until we legally transfer the fund into your bank account. Your timely response will be appreciated.

Sincerely Yours,
Mr.France Quansah
Cell: +23321247006


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