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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: Zago Ibrahim <zago_ibrahimabu@yahoo.com.au>
Reply-To: joesee50@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2010 14:48:33 -0800 (PST)
Subject: FORM THE DESK OF SIR.ZAGO IBRAHIM ABU



                           
           
   ASSALAMAUA LIKUM
   
              FORM THE DESK OF SIR.ZAGO IBRAHIM
ABU           
                               
IMPORTANT LETTER  TO YOU 
READ AND REPLY ME THANK YOU.

     

Dear Friend,
With due
respect to your person and  much sincerity of purpose I make this contact with
you as I believe that you can be of great assistance to me. My name is SIR.ZAGO
IBRAHIM ABU , from Ouagadougou Republic of BURKINA FASO, West Africa. Presently
i work in the Bank as telex manager. I have been searching for your contact
since you left our country some years ago .I do not know whether this is your
correct email address or not because I only used your name initials to search
for your contact in the internet .In case you are not the person I am supposed
to contact , please see this as a confidential message and do not reveal it to
another person but if you are not the intended receiver, do let me know whether
you can be of assistance regarding my proposal below because it is top
secret.

I  am about to retire from active Bank service to start a new
life but I am sceptical to reveal this particular secret to a stranger . You
must assure me that everything will be handled confidentially because we are not
going to suffer again in life.

It has been 10 years now that most of the
greedy African Politicians used our bank to Launder money overseas through the
help of their Political advisers. Most of the funds which they transferred out
of the shores of Africa was gold and oil money that was supposed to have been
used to develop the continent. Their Political advisers always inflated the
amounts before transfer to foreign accounts so I also used the opportunity to
divert part of the funds hence I am aware that  there is no official trace of
how much was transferred as all the accounts used for such transfers were being
closed after transfer.

I acted as the Bank Officer to most of the
politicians and when I discovered that they were using me to succeed in their
greedy act, I also cleaned some of their banking records from the Bank files and
no one cared to ask me because the money was too much for them to control. They
laundered over $5b(five billion) united states Dollars during the process .As I
am sending this message to you, I was able to divert more than  Hundred and
Fifty Million Dollars ($150m)   to an escrow account belonging to no one in the
bank. The bank is anxious now to know who is the beneficiary to the funds
because they have made a lot of profits with the funds.

It is more than 
Eight years now and most of the politicians are no longer using our bank to
transfer funds overseas. The  Hundred and Fifty Million Dollars ($150m)  has
been lying waste but I don't want to retire from the bank without transferring
the funds to a foreign account to enable me share the proceeds with the
receiver. The money will be shared 60% for me and 40% for you .

There is
no one coming to ask you about the funds because I secured everything.I only
want you to assist me by providing a bank account where the funds can be
transferred. You are not to face any difficulties or legal implications as I am
going to handle the transfer personally. If you are capable of receiving the
funds, do let me know immediately to enable me give you a detailed information
on what to do.
For me, I have not stolen the money from anyone because the
other people that took the whole money did not face any problems. This is my
chance also to grab my own but you must keep the details of the funds secret to
avoid leakages as no one in the bank knows about the funds.
Please supply me
the following:
Your current contact address and Telephone Numbers..
I
shall intimate you on what to do when I get your confirmation and acceptance. If
you are capable of being my trusted associate, do declare your consent to
me.
Waiting for your urgent response.

Yours Faithfully,
SIR.ZAGO
IBRAHIM ABU ,














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