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 PAUL WILLIAMS" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <dr.paulwilliams04@hotmail.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2011 20:34:52 +0100
Subject: Please Go Through This

Attn:

Greetings to you.

I am sorry for contacting you on this venture without your permission or previous information. I believe we can be of help to each other by partnering in this transaction despite the fact that we do not know each other before.

My name is Dr Paul Tamuno Williams, working with the strategic Federal Ministry of Power & Steel, Federal Government of Nigeria, as The Executive Director of Procurements.

I am requesting for your cooperation and partnership to receive and safeguard the sum of US$10Million in your country pending my arrival to see you after the fund is transferred into your account.

This transaction is my private arrangement which I have chosen you to work with. If you can help in this venture, you will be entitled to 40% of the total fund when transferred to you. It is necessary to inform you that after this initial transfer is effectuated and your performance is seen to be honest and perfect, other transfers shall be initiated to be received by you.

If you are interested to help realize this venture, please feel free to reply me to enable me to furnish you with further information on how this transaction will proceed and achieved.

What I essentially require from you now are:

1. Your contact phone number, preferably your mobile phone and house phone numbers to speak with you.

2. Your contact mailing address:

Once your reply affirming your interest to partner with me is received, I shall open up communication with you on how we are to proceed. I will appreciate if you would be kind to partner with me to achieve success in this venture on the basis of mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual interest. I am assuring you that you will never ever be disappointed if you avail me your helping hands for the success of this transaction.

It is very important that I inform you that this venture is not by force, We must be sincere and honest in engaging with one another in this venture.

There will be documentation that will be processed to serve as back up documents for the fund transfer as legitimate payment being made to you for specific Services rendered to the Government of Nigeria . The documentation shall serve as proofs that the fund being transferred to you is legitimate and has nothing to do with money laundering, drugs, illicit or criminal activity, I shall discuss this further with you when I receive your response.

Once your response is received and we have understanding to work together, the transfer of the funds can be concluded within 10 working days once we get started.

Please feel free to reply and ask any question you wish so that I can clarify you before we proceed.

Looking forward to your response

Dr. Paul T. Williams.

Anti-fraud resources: