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: "Dr Ghanem Shokri" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <dr.ghanemshokri@skymail.mn>
Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2011 14:34:40 -0700
Subject: I NEED YOUR HELP!

National Oil Corporation Building
Bashir Al Saadawi Street
P.O. Box 2655
Tarabulus 5335
Tripoli Libya.
 
Hello Dear,
 
How are you today and your family also business? Hope you are doing
good,You are very much aware of the situation in libya.
 
I am Dr Shokri Ghanem Libyan National Oil Co-operation’s procurement
Chairman in the whole Africa. Please note that I have contacted you in
good faith and this proposal is for the benefit of the both of us
because of the current situation in my country right now.
 
Based on the looming war in my country now, i have decided to contact
you for this urgent business opportunity and relationship. I want to
inform you that I have in my possession the sum of USD 7.5 Million
Dollars.
 
I want to invest the money in a good business of your choice in your
country. I am solely interested in making a life for my son and
therefore I shall require the service of a person who is trustworthy
and sincere and i am going to make you the beneficiary of the money
and allowing you to invest for my son in the event anything happens to
me here.  So I have an 100% authentic means of transferring the money
to your country as soon as I hear from you.
 
I contacted you after many thoughts. Our operation here is getting
tough and anything can happen to me any time. This is the reason why i
made up my mind to locate somebody abroad whom i can establish a
business relationship.
 
I shall establish a memorandum of understanding with you and give you
the power of attorney to represent my interest.
 
I need the following from you as soon as possible.
1. Your full name:
2. Your direct phone number
3. Full address in your country and your age.
4. Your occupation
5.Copy of your ID.
 
If you are interested, then let me know so we can proceed as time is
very important to me. I wait for your contact details so we can go
into action. In less than four working days, the money should have
been in your position.
 
I will give to you 30% of the sum and 70% is for my investment
interest because I know that nothing goes for nothing, I hope I am
been fair to you for your assistance as my receiving partner.
 
I will send you more information as soon as I hear from you and I
thank God that I have managed to move the fund out of my country Libya
to West African country at the moment i have lost my wife in this
crises, and my son Loma, join the fleeing people to another African
country and he only email, hence I have told him about my plans and he
will be waiting to hear from you in west Africa where he is right now
.
Kind regards,
 
Dr Ghanem Shokri
chairman of Libya's National Oil Corporation

Anti-fraud resources: