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: Zumahamson <Zumahamson@live.fr>
Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2013 13:15:08 +0200
Subject: Hi Dear, (Urgent Message)

Hi Dear, (Urgent Message)

Good day my Dear,how do you do, you captured my heart,i need you for
serious business relationship. I am Mr Zuma Hamson, I work as an auditor
for Ecobank here in Lome-Togo. I have a business of $5.5million usd i want
to discus with you. i got your email through web site page when i was
searching for a trust worthy partner. This is the Deal.... It has been 10
years now that most of the greedy Politicians used our bank to launder
money overseas through the help of their Political advisers.Most of the
funds which they transferred out of the shores of Africa was gold and oil
money that was supposed to have been used to develop the continent.

Their Political advisers always inflated the amounts before transfer to
foreign accounts so I also used the opportunity to divert part of the funds
hence I am aware that there is no official trace of how much was
transferred as all the accounts used for such transfers were being closed
after transfer.I acted as the Account Officer to most of the politicians
and when I discovered that they were using me to succeed in their greedy
act; I decided to cleaned some of their banking records from the Bank files
and no one cared to ask me because the money was too much for them to
control.
They laundered over ($90 Million usd) during the process.As I am sending
this message to you, I was able to divert Five Million Five Hundred
Thousand usd ($5.5M usd) to an escrow account belonging to no one in the
bank.Now the bank is anxious to know who the beneficiary to the funds is
because they have made a lot of profits with the funds. It is more than
three years now and most of the politicians are no longer using our bank to
transfer funds overseas.

The ($5.5 Million) has been lying waste. The above set of facts underscores
my reason to seek your permission to have you stand as the beneficiary to
the Fund. This fund will be approved and release in your favor as the
beneficiary of the account if only you will adhere to my instruction and
cooperate with me in one accord. I have all the legal papers and An escrow
letters that will facilitate your claims as the beneficiary of the funds
and ultimately; the transfer of the ($5.5M usd plus interest to any bank
account nominated by you.
I am prepared to compensate you with a 40% share of the total funds for
your efforts The final details will be given upon receipt of an affirmation
of your desire to participate. Please contact me immediately if you are
interested, through my private email address: (zumahamson@live.fr)

Yours sincerely
Mr.Zuma Hamson

Anti-fraud resources: