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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: "Brigadier General Nana Tennyson" <info@aim.com>
Reply-To: genbrigadier11@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2011 20:25:26 +0800 (PHT)
Subject: ATTENTION: FRIEND.




ATTENTION: FRIEND.

I am BRIGADIER GENERAL NANA TENNYSON, the Chief of General Staff, GHANA. I
am mailing
you in respect, of the present development going on here in my country GHANA.

I decided to contact you, after much investigation which was carried out
by the Bureau
of National Investigation (BNI) and the Ghana Police Service, to make sure
our country
is free of these fraudulent activities, which is going on here in Africa
and for our
country to bear a good name.

The Airport Authority detected that trunk boxes after been scanned the
authorities
detected that the boxes contains funds on your name and email that has
been tempered
on, were been smuggled into the country by foreign Personnel who were on
transit from
London.

These men were trying to enter the country with the trunk boxes, when the
airport
authority detected that these boxes contains, some huge amount of United
State Dollars.
After much investigation we found out that these men were among those men,
spoiling the
good name of Africa.

They opened up to us that, they actually work with a Lotto company before
their
dismissal and used the opportunity to perpetuate their crimes, they told
us that the
funds inside the boxes was won by you, but now they planned to turn back
on you and
decided to take the money all to themselves out of the country. We later
found out on
the investigation that was carried that, these men are truly members of a
well
established organization to act on their criminal activities.

As I write you this mail now, the three(3) men that were caught are now in
the custody
of the Ghana Police Service over here in our country Ghana, while we are
trying to
track the others left, because they have proved to us that they belong to one
organization.
That is why we have to reach you by your mail address and name that was
tagged the
boxes, so we can make the arrangement on the transfer of the funds to your
designated
bank account.

Your response will be very much appreciated as soon as you have received
this email.

Thank you for your kind attention, for us to make sure our beloved country
Ghana, bears
a good name.

Please in your reply include your
.

As this information will be required, by the authorities in Ghana to draft
the new
change of ownership in your name as the rightful owner of the funds in our
custody and
also to verify the information given to us because the documentations
covering the
boxes have been tampered on.


Regards,
Brigadier General Nana Tennyson
genbrigadier11@gmail.com


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