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: Tertius Omar <tertiusomar@voila.fr>
Date: Fri, 8 Mar 2002 14:50:07 GMT
Subject: URGENT REPLY IS NEEDED.

FROM: MR. TERTIUS OMAR
FOREIGN REMITTANCE MANAGER
BANK OF AFRICA (B.O.A)
OUAGADOUGOU BURKINA FASO
PHONE NUMBER +22675426425
 
Dear Friend,
 
I know that this mail will come to you as a surprise as we never meet before. I am the FOREIGN REMITTANCE MANAGER of B.O.A Bank of Africa, I Hoped that you will not expose or betray this trust and confident that I am about to repose on you for the mutual benefit of our both families.
 
I need your urgent assistance in transferring the sum of ($18.4M) Eighteen Million Four Hundred Thousand United States Dollars immediately to your account. The money has been dormant (in-active) for Nine years in our Bank here without any body coming for it.
 
I want the Bank to release the money to you as the nearest person to our deceased customer MR. RICHARD BURSON FROM USA the owner of the account who died a long with his supposed next of kin in plane crash since 2000. I don't want the money to go into our Bank treasury as an abandoned fund, so this is the reason why I contacted you, so that my Bank will release the money to you as the nearest person to the deceased customer.
 
Please I would like you to keep this proposal as a top secret and delete it if you are not interested.
 
Upon receipt of your reply I will send you full details on how the business will be executed and also note that you will have 40% of the above mentioned amount if you agree to help me execute this business.
 
Thanks and waiting for your urgent response
 
Best Regards
Mr. Tertius Omar
 

Anti-fraud resources: