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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: mike addo <eliasappiah100@yahoo.co.uk>
Reply-To: mraddo003@hotmail.com
Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2011 14:33:34 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: Attention please




From: Dr.Michael Addo,
Regional Manager
International Commercial Bank Ghana Ltd,
Takoradi,Ghana-West Africa.
TOP URGENT AND CONFIDENTIAL
Dear,
By way of introduction I am Dr.Michael Addo. the regional manager Iternational Commercial Bank Ghana Ltd. I write you in respect of a foreign customer with Domicilary A/CC number 6402356789. He died with his girl friend in a car clash in South Africa.
Since the demise of this our customer,who was an gold/daimond and oil marchant/contractor, I have kept a close watch of the deposit records and accounts and since then no body has come to claim the money in this a/c as next of kin to the late Engineer. He had only $18.5mllion in his a/c and the a/c is coded.
It is only an insider that could produce the code or password of the deposit particulars. As it stands now, there is nobody in that position to produce the needed information other than my very self considering my position in the bank. Based on the reason that nobody has come forward to claim the deposit as next of kin, I hereby ask for your co operation in using your name as the next of kin to the deceased to send these funds out to a foreign offshore bank a/cc for mutual sharing between myself and you.
At this point I am the only one with the information because I have removed the deposit file from the safe. By this doing, what is required of you is to send an application laying claims of the deposit as next of kin to the late Engineer. I will need your full name and address, company or residential, so that i can computerize them to tally with next of kin column in the certificate of deposit slip. I want you to understand that the request for a foreigner as the next of kin is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and for that reason alone a local cannot represent as next of kin.
When you contact me then we shall discuss on how the money will be split between us. Trusting to hear from you.
I remain
Respectfully.
Yours,
Dr.Michael Addo.
Your Kind Attention Requiried.



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