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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: mariam profadnam <m_profadnam@sify.com>
Date: Sun, 6 Jun 2010 10:50:49 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Dear God's elect,


Dear God's elect,

Please accept my sincere apologizes if my email does not meet your business or personal ethics,i am writing this email to you with heavy tears in my eyes and great sorrow in my heart. My name is Mariam Profadnam and I am contacting you from Burkina Faso. Where am presently seeking refuge as refugee I want to tell you this because I don't have any other option than to tell you as I was touched to open up to you, I am the only surviving daughter of my Father, Mr. Hamidou Profadnam, who owned a mining and exploration company in Burkina before he died in the year 2009. He and my mother were poisoned by some of his friends and business associate, They died after a brief illness that lasted for only five days. When my late Father was alive, he deposited two boxes containing 350kg of Gold bar and ¨$8,200.000m (eight million two hundred thousand US dollars) in a security company in Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso in West Africa. Presently, this
boxes are still in the security company .

I am suffering from a long time cancer,from all indication my conditions is really deteriorating and it is quite obvious that i might died. My doctor told me that I would not last for the period of seven months due to a cancer sting has done alots of damage in my body system .The one that disturbs me most is my stroke sickness. Having known my condition, I decided to hand this Gold bar and money over to an organization or individual to propagating the word of God and to take care of less-privileged people.If you will utilize this money the way I am going to instruct herein. I want you to take 30 percent of the total money for your personal use, while 70 percent of the money will go to charity people in the street and helping the orphanage.

I don't have anybody as my family member,just to endeavor that the house of God is maintained. I am doing this so that God will forgive my sins, and accept my soul if die,because of this sickness I have suffered so much. As soon as I receive your reply, I shall give you the contact of the security company in Burkina Faso.

I will also instruct lawyer to issue you an authority letter that will prove you to be the present beneficiary of the deposited boxes , that is, if you assure me that you will act accordingly as I have stated herein.

You can forward to me the following informations for the change of ownership.

FULLNAME....
NATIONALITY.....
OCCUPATION.....
TELEPHONE NUMBER....
RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS...

I am hoping to receive your reply.
>From Mariam Profadnam.




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