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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: Mark Kwame <revolawilliam111@gmail.com>
Reply-To: mark.ansah@onet.pl
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2010 18:04:14 +0530 (IST)
Subject: Offer


Good day,
I am a regional manager of a bank in Ghana (Name withheld for Security Reasons) I personally discovered a dormant account with a total sum of $9,000,000.00 (NINE MILLION UNITED STATE DOLLARS) during our Bank's Annual Year Account Auditing.
The owner of this dormant account died on 4th Jan 2006. Since the death of the deceased, nobody has operated in this account till date. Moreover, while going through the file I found out there is no next of kin defined.  Definitely, this fund will be confiscated by our BANKING CODE OF ETHICS if it remains dormant for a period of (4) year without any claims.   In this regard, I earnestly need your full cooperation in transferring this dormant fund out of our bank to avoid confiscating this fund. I will split the transfer into two 2 stages for easy and smooth transfer. I am contacting you because the deceased shares the same surname as you.
This was after a painstaking search through internet emails on possible surname match. First, I will transfer $500,000.00 to any valid foreign account you will nominate, upon a successful transfer without any disappointment from your side, I will then fly to meet you in your home destination for sharing, and thereafter we jointly transfer the remaining balance of $8,500,000.00 for magnitude investments.  If you are willing to cooperate in this project, I will give you details immediately as soon as I hear from you.
Please note that you are required to keep this business very confidential.
Yours sincerely,
Mark.
 


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