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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: "Mikah Dogoh" <dogohmikah50@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: mikahdogoh1@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 3 May 2010 05:09:35 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Business Proposition


Dear Sir,

How are you today? i hope you are fine. Before I proceed i wish to
introduce myself to you. My name is Mr Mikah Dogoh a staff of one of a
Commercial Bank in Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire. I have a confidential business
proposition for you. I got your contact from (American worldwide companies
directory)

On october, 2003 An oil consultant / contractor with the Cote d'Ivoire
National Petroleum Corporation, Mr Todd Zara made a numbered time (fixed)
deposit for twelve calendar months valued at US$9M (Nine Million united
states dollars) in my branch. Upon maturity, I sent a routine notification
to his forwarding address but got no reply. After a month, i sent a
reminder and finally discovered from his contact employers, that he died
along with his family in auto crash.

On further investigation, I found out that he did not leave a WILL and all
attempts to trace his next of kin were fruitless. I therefore made further
investigation and discovered that he, did not declare any next of kin in
all his official documents, including his Bank Deposit paperwork. This sum
of US$9M is still in our Bank and the interest is being rolled over with
the principal sum at the end of each year. No one will come forward to
claim it.
According to the Ivorian law, at the expiration of 7 years, the money will
revert to the ownership of the Cote d'Ivoire government if nobody applies
to claim the funds. Now, my proposal is that I would want you, as a
foreigner to stand as the next of kin to late Mr Todd Zara, so that the
fruits of this old man's labor will not get into the hands of some corrupt
government officials in my country.

This is simple,
1)I would want you to provide to me immediately your full names and
address so that the attorney will prepare all the necessary documents and
affidavits, which will put you in place as the next of kin to this fixed
deposit. (2) We shall employ the services of an attorney for drafting all
the necessary documents in your favor for the transfer. (3) A bank account
in any part of the world, which you provide, will then facilitate the
transfer of this money to you as the beneficiary / next of kin of Mr Todd
Zara. The money will be paid into your account for us to share in the
ratio of 50% for you and 50% for me.

There is no risk as all the paper work for this transaction will be done
by the attorney and my position as a staff of this department, guarantees
the successful execution of this deal. If you are interested, reply
immediately via my private email address (mikahdogoh1@gmail.com ) Upon
your response, I shall then give you more details and relevant documents
that will help you understand the deal very well.

Kindly observe utmost confidentiality, and rest assured that this
transaction would be most profitable for both of us because I shall
require your assistance to invest my share in your country. Fell free to
call me on my telephone number (+225 494 02317) for more details.

Regards,
Mr Mikah Dogoh

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