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: "ALI SALEEM" (may be fake)
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2012 12:35:13 +0100
Subject: ACTION REQUESTED: BUSINESS PLAN:

Dear,
It is not my intention to introduce myself to you through this unconventional means, but my considerations were based on speed, reliability and trust. I got your email from the online data base. I personal assistant and advisor to Mrs. Ghanem, wife of Shukri Ghanem, the former Libyan prime minister and oil minister who was found dead in Vienna last year. I write you to help in assisting to repatriate the sum of $18.2M United States dollars deposited with a coded number with a security company in Malaysia in 2010, by Shukri Ghanem who was then oil minister of LIBYA on behalf of Mrs. Ghanem. He is late now. Since his death his wifae have assigned me to assist her get full and legal ownership and access to the money with the security company which can only be possible through a third party who is not known to the family or have any ties with the family because Shukri Ghanem did not enlist any of his family members as beneficiary which he did to hide the money from the government of Libya.
Mrs. Ghanem has the code numbers of the fund lodgments which was done in two installments of $8m and $10.2m.We now need someone who will travel to Malaysia as business consultant to Mr. Shukri Ghanem to meet with the security company. We have assigned a lawyer in Malaysia and he has discussed with the security company on transfer agreement of the lodged fund and the modalities of transfer of ownership has been discussed and agreed upon.
What we need you to do is to travel to United Kingdom, meet the lawyer for change of ownership in your name after which the lawyer will take you to the security company for delivery of the lodged fund to you. With the change of ownership the money will be released to you and then you will in turn lodge the money for Mrs. Ghanem under her name. The cost for processing the legal change of ownership is $18,000 and we need you to finance it because Mrs. Ghanem cannot foot the bills now.
She has agreed that you shall have 15% of the total $18.2M which you shall deduct before lodgments of the remaining fund to her name according to instructions that will be released to you after you have received the money. You shall also deduct the sum of $230,000.00 only to be given to the lawyer for his legal fees which you shall released to him when you are in custody of the $18.2m.
If you can assist Mrs. Ghanem let me know immediately you received this message by sending me.
Your full names,
Age and
Marital status,
Residential address
Phone number
So I will give you further details and introduce you to the lawyer who will process the legal change of ownership. It is important I let you know that this information and transfer arrangement should be kept strictly confidential from anybody whatsoever in order to protect all parties involved.
Though i write you hoping we can work together on this. However if you are not capable please do let me know so i look for alternatives as i do not have much time on this.

Email: f.clients@post.com
Fax: +442080433794
Until i hear from you.
Ali Saleem.

Anti-fraud resources: