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. Gaius Igbinedion" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <rbfdplc@ymail.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2013 07:44:13 -0500
Subject: Trustee!

Dear Sir,

We are sending this letter to you based on information gathered from the foreign trade office of the Nigerian chamber of commerce and industry. We believe that you would be in a position to help us in our bid to transfer the sum of Seventy five million United States dollars (US$75M) Into a foreign account we are members of the special committee for budget and planning of the ministry of petroleum, this committee is principally concerned with contract appraisals and approval of contracts in order of priorities as regards capital project of the federal government of Nigeria. With our positions, we have successfully secured for ourselves the sum of Seventy five million United States dollars (US$75M). This amount was accumulated through undeclared win fall from sales of crude oil. What we need from you is to provide a safe account into which the funds will be transferred since government officials are not allowed by our laws to operate foreign account.

It may interest you to know that two years ago a similar transaction was carried out with one Mr. Donald Harold, the managing director of crania international trading corporation in USA, after the agreement between both partners in which he was to take 25%. the money was duly transferred into his account only to be disappointed on our arrival in USA as we were reliably informed that Mr. Donald Harold was no longer on longer on that address while his telephone and fax numbers have been reallocated to somebody else, that is how we lost US$40M to Mr. Donald Harold. this time around we need a more reliable and trustworthy person or a reputable company to do business with hence this letter to you, so if you can prove yourself to be trusted and interested in this deal then we are prepared to do business with you. What we want from you is the assurance that you will let us have our share when this amount of US$75M is transferred into your account.

If this proposal satisfies you, response with your phone number so we can advice you on the modalities of the transaction. All modalities of the transfer have been worked out and once started will not take more than 14 working days with the absolute support of all concerned. This transaction is 100% safe.

Please treat as urgent and very confidential. God be with you as I look forward to your reply.

Yours faithfully,

Dr. Gaius Igbinedion.

Anti-fraud resources: