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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: "Dr.Patrick Abunu" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <drpatrickabunu263@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 14 Sep 2013 03:48:10 -0700
Subject: Re.BE MY PARTNER IN BUSINESS,

Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement systems Limited.
#23, Seventh Avenue
Ridge West
P.M.B. GPO Accra-Ghana

Attention Please,

I work with a bank In West Africa, Accra Ghana.I have a
business transaction for you.

In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of Ten
Million Five Hundred Thousand USA Dollars.In an account that
belongs to one of our foreign customer who died along with
his entire family in war in Iraq.

Since his supposed next of kin died along side with him at
the war,there is nobody to claim the left over balance in
the account.It is therefore upon this discovery that I and
other officials in my department decided to seek your
assistance and present you to the bank as his Next of kin.

If you accept i would give you the guide lines of how we
can achieve this transfer of the money to your account,and
we will share the money 30-70%.I expect that you will give
me your telephone and fax numbers for easy communication
with you and for more details.

Best Regards

Dr. Patrick Abunu
http://www.ghipss.net/

Anti-fraud resources: