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"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: Foreign Affairs Minister Accra Ghana <foreignaffairsministeraccraghana@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2012 06:06:07 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Notice from the Foreign Affairs Minister Accra Ghana


Attention:

The  Government of Ghana
through provisions in Section 419 of the
Criminal Code came up with punitive
measures to deter and punish
offenders.The Advance Fee Fraud section deal
mainly with cases of advance
fee fraud(commonly called 419) such as obtaining
by false pretence through
different fraudulent schemes e.g. contract scam,
credit card scam,
inheritance scam, job scam, loan scam, lottery scam, “wash
wash” scam (money
washing scam), marriage scam. Immigration scam,
counterfeiting and religious
scam. It also investigates cyber crime
cases.

This is to officially announce to you that some scam Syndicates
were
apprehended in Accra, Ghana few days ago and after several
interrogations
and tortures your details were among those mentioned by some
of the scam
Syndicates as one of the victims of their
operations.

After proper investigations and research at Western Union Money Transfer and
Money Gram office to
know if you have truly sent money to the scam
Syndicates through Western
Union Money Transfer or Money Gram and some bank transfer payment
, your name
wasfound in Western Union Money Transfer database amongst those that have
sent
money through Western Union Money Transfer to Ghana and this proves
that
you have truly been swindled by those unscrupulous persons by sending
money
to them in the course of getting one fund or the other that is not
real,
right now we are working hand in hand with Western Union and Interpol
to
track every fraudsters down, do not respond to their e-mails, letters
and
phone calls any longer they are scammers and you should be very careful
to
avoid being a victim to fraudsters any longer because they have nothing
to
offer you but to rip-off what you have worked hard to earn.

In this
regard a meeting was held between the Board of Directors of The
Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission  and as a consequence of our
investigations it was agreed that the sum of
Eight hundred & Fifty thousand 
US Dollars
(US$850,000) should be transferred to you out of the funds that
Government of GHANA
 has set aside as a compensation to everyone who have by
one way or the other sent money to fraudsters in Ghana or Any Other countries
.


We have deposited your fund at Bank of Ghana . We have submitted
your details to them so
that your fund can be transferred to
you.

Contact the Deputy Governor BANK OF GHANA  office through the email
address stated
below inform them about this notification letter and the
transfer of your
fund;
Notice you must always copy any mail you sending to
Bank of Ghana to me on my private email(foreignaffairsministeraccraghana@
yahoo.com)

BANK OFFICER:DR. H. A. K. WAMPAH
BANK OF GHANA (DEPUTY
GOVERNOR)
Address: One Thorpe Road P.O. Box GP 2674 Accra Gh
bogsecretary.gov.gh@accountant.com

Yours
Faithfully
Alhaji Mumuni M.
Foreign Affairs
Minister

Anti-fraud resources: