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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. Obeng Jacob" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <jac_obeng@yahoo.de>
Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2013 00:38:40 +0530
Subject: Final Payment Notification. 9/28/2013

>From The Desk Of:
Dr. Jacob Obeng.
Personal Assistant to the governor,
Central Bank of Ghana.

RE: Final Notification:

We wish to notify you for the last time that the approval for the immediate
release and transfer of all pending payments in the West Africa Sub-region
was issued on the 15th March, 2013 by the West African Monetary Union in
collaboration with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) West
African Zone. The United Bank for Africa Plc approved by the Central Bank of
Ghana was appointed to oversee all the payments.

All overdue pending payments were relocated to the Vault of the United Bank
for Africa Plc to facilitate the immediate release and transfer of funds to
all the rightful beneficiaries and several notifications were sent to all
the beneficiaries to this effect. Since then several payments has been made
and we have been waiting to receive payment instruction from you to effect
the transfer of your funds to any bank account of your choice but to no
avail

Please quickly take a look at the attached letter of authorization we
received from Mr. Thomas H. Sears, Jr. from Maryland - USA. In his
application, he stated that you died on the 1st May, 2013 and further
claimed that you issued the attached letter of authorization in his favor on
the hospital bed before your death, stating that in the invent of death,
that you are authorizing him to inherit your overdue pending payment as your
legitimate heir.

We wish to inform you that his personal bank account was provided in the
attached letter of authorization which he claimed that was issued by you for
the receipt of your pending payment to the tune of (USD$12,000,000:00)
Twelve Million United States Dollars only.

More so, the two white men in the pictures also attached with this message
are Mr. Thomas H. Sears, Jr. and his partner Mr. Roberts Ferguson. We took
these pictures when Mr. Thomas was signing some documents at the UBA Vault
office here in Accra Ghana.

Before we proceed with the payment to him, we wish to confirm the truth in
his claims.

1. Are you dead or alive?
2. Do you recognize the persons in the attached pictures?
3. Did you by any means issue the attached letter of authorization to Mr.
Thomas?

Please get back to us within 72 hours or you left us with no choice then to
proceed with the payment to the bank account you nominated in the attached
letter of authorization.

Your urgent response will be highly appreciated.

For and on behalf of the Central Bank of Ghana

We await your urgent response.

Yours Faithfully,

Dr. Jacob Obeng.
Personal Assistant to the governor,
Central Bank of Ghana
One Thorpe Road
P. O. Box GP 2674
Accra Ghana, West Africa.
Reply-To: obeng_jacob@yahoo.de
Telephone: +233-(0)-545849722
Website: www.bog.gov.gh

Anti-fraud resources: