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: ahmed ibrahim <ibr2001@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2012 08:22:32 -0800
Subject: Dear Friend,

Dear Friend,

I was greatly delighted when I got your contact; I am Major A U. Ibrahim
(Military) from D.R.C.
I'm looking for your co-operation in establishing a fishery/five star
hotel project or any profitable manufacturing outfit in your country.

One of the reason I contacted you on this project is because I need an
experienced and mature person to assist me to set up, develop the project
and assume responsibility of ownership as chairman but will be bringing
in profit /distribute profit monthly or annually, pending my retirement
from service in order to take full control of my investment.

I also open to your advice on any good business you may propose since, I
as a military man and I have not involved in any establishment project
before.
Please to go straight to the main point of sending you this mail, I want
you to know that there is a lot of pressure facing top military officers
in my country in which I will not want my name to be among the list.

I also want you have in mind that I cannot do this project in my country
not even using my names or identity to transact any investment of huge
amount base on my position in military, this is why I really need your
assistance to move out my entire funds for this establishment so that this
money will not be discovered and seized or confiscate by the central
authority, as they have done it to some of my colleagues.

Lastly, at this point I want to assure you that your true consent, full
cooperation and confidentiality are all that are required for us to take
full advantage of this opportunity as every modality for successful
conclusion has been put in place.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.


Best Regards,
Major A U. Ibrahim

Anti-fraud resources: