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: "Daniel MTIYEH" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mmmmpz@cantv.net>
Date: Sat, 16 Oct 2010 06:34:41 -0000
Subject: IS ME DANIEL

Dearest one,

my name is Daniel MTIYEH a 19year old boy from Sierra Leone. I am the only son of Late Engr. Peter J. Mtiyeh, The former owner of PRUUGIP Oil and PRUUGIP Shipping Company now Sold to USA Investors. I am writing you from Abidjan the economic capital of Cote d'Ivoire.

My father was in charge of the compensation grants given by the oil companies operating in our locality and recently a dispute that later resulted to tribal war broke our in our town claiming the lives of many and eventually resulted to the death of my father.

Before his death, he asked my mother to take us to Cote d’Ivoire and settle there pending when he will join us before death caught up with him. About almost a year we are here now, my mother has been very sick and also passed on three month ago. But before my mother’s death, she gave me a package to safeguard but never had the opportunity to tell me anything about the package before her death.

I opened the package recently and discovered that the content are bank deposit paper and agreement that my late father made with one of the prime banks here in Abidjan with the value of about Twelve million Eight hundred thousand United States dollars(USD$12,800,000.00).

Left with my little sister who is only 15yrs, as the current political situation of Cote d’Ivoire is in chaos we decided to seek for help outside Africa as my mother warned us never to go back to our country. We are asking for your assistance to transfer this money and also relocate to your country to further our studies. We are willing to compensate you with some reasonable amount if you will assist us in receiving the money.

The main reason I contacted you is that I have been to the bank to claim the money since my name is used as the next of kin but the bank told me that the money can only be released to me under a guardianship since the agreement they had with my father was that the money can only be released to me at an acclaimed age of 25years.

If you are willing to assist us, write me back today with your full name and telephone number so that we can discuss further.

God bless you.

Daniel MTIYEH.

Anti-fraud resources: