419 scam: "John E Shook"<ghana77@triolan.ua> A Very Good Realtor/Broker needed!

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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:

This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "% of every payment" (Beware of any scheme that involves depositing checks or money orders or receiving wire transfers in your bank account and then wiring a portion of the funds somewhere, for a percentage of 5-15% of the total. Such offers are *always* fraudulent and you will be liable for the entire amount when the checks, money orders or wire transfers turn out to be fraudulent. Any money already forwarded comes out of *your* pocket then. )
- "u.k " (this email uses bad English)
This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.

Fraud email example:

From: "John E Shook" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <john_e11shook@w.cn>
Date: Wed, 25 May 2011 12:51:37 -0700
Subject: A Very Good Realtor/Broker needed!

I am Mr. John E Shook base in U.K as the coordinator of British/Chinese Trade commission. I am constrained to write you this E-Letter after various inquiries from bank, regarding transfer of some funds for importation without my partners going through raising a Letter of Credit, which has almost limited my imports as at when needed in state.

I want to solicit your partnership in using your Equity Line of Credit Account in receiving funds from my partners in United States of America, which they don't want to attract any of the Government taxes. My bank advises that I could get someone that already had Line of Credit to act as an Escrow Agent in this transaction to avoid exorbitant taxes which my partners would never tolerate. This is currently affecting me because of the recent decline/reduction in turnover experienced.
Please take note that my partners and their payment sources are genuine, this idea basically is to ease the process of transfer of funds and minimize taxes at the same time boast trade relationship.

This venture is strictly legitimate and genuine, and be informed that your financial commitment will not be required since you will not be asked to send any money as I do not need your money. I will offer you 5% of every payment made into your Line of Credit Account as commission.

I will be more comfortable if your current account balance is ZERO BALANCE to avoid complication and for transparency reasons. This is to accommodate the incoming funds from my partners.

l have taken time to plan how this will work under legal terms without contravening the financial laws of America government, everything will follow a legal procedures, I assure you of that.

Hope to hear from you too ASAP!!

John E Shook

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam