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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: "Dr. Musa Ibrahim" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <musaibrahim101@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:40:10 +0100
Subject: Transfer

Dear Sir,

My name is Dr. Musa Ibrahim, I am the Director of Foreign Operations, in the office of the Presidency of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria. I have a file that was brought to me on Thursday, from our Finance Ministry, for
an outstanding payment that is due to you over a long period of time. But it was surprising to me that there
are two claimants over the same fund that has been approved; you and one Mr. Gilbert Woodworth from
Mesa Arizona. On further investigation, I found out that this is an over-invoiced contract sum, whose
original has been paid to its beneficiary, and that you and Mr. Gilbert Woodworth were co opted into this
deal to move this money out by some officials here in my country.

I had to dig deep into financial records available with us about your said payment and my discovery made
me write this email to you. We do not owe you nothing! You are being used as a conduit to syphone money
out of our banking system by an insider in our economy. On a further investigation, all payment approved
records here does not even bear any direct linkage to you, not even receipts and vouchers that you are
supposed to sign were signed by you. Now, my question is, why your interest in pulling this money out in the
wrong way when you know you cannot succeed and even your incompetent collaborators cannot pull a
clean deal?

I will like to let you know that if you had acted according to laid down procedures for this kind of transfers,
this money would have been in your possession by now and we may not have been able to discover our
loss! I have not reported this discovery to any one and I would like a deal with you on a 60/40 sharing ratio
with you if you will agree to my proposal. I can successfully provide the means to a successful transfer of
this money without any stress, if you will collaborate with me. I will forward you my own account also where
you will pay in my own share, on successful completion of this deal. This is the best possible means of
getting this money since you will have full assurance that the money will surely get to you. All papers will be
duly signed by you, to make you the fund beneficiary.

If this is agreeable with you, get back to me immediately to enable me implement this process. More so, you
must stop all communications with any so called officials, if you are still in contact with any, as to avoid
duplication of the payment application, in order for it not to be canceled.

Get back to me by phone, 234 8060707386, or email me as soon as possible.

Hoping that you will keep this secret and confidential,

Dr. Musa Ibrahim

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