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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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Elder Paul Oshohi Osaro" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <elderpauloshohiosaro@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 01.06.16 +0100
Subject: Respectfully Submitted.

Good day Sir/Madam,
 
 
I got your contact address and necessary information about you from a reliable source. I therefore picked a keen interest in its information and decided to request for a business relationship with you. Briefly, may I take this opportunity to introduce myself; my name is Elder Paul Oshohi Osaro I am a Principal Accountant of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
I am privileged to be the chairman of the contract review committee set-up by the present civilian government to audit and review payment of foreign contractors. Subsequently, an international audit was carried out with the Nigerian National petroleum Corporation (NNPC) only to discover over-invoiced of huge amount of monies in their account as an unclaimed payment due for a foreign contractor. This indeed represents 17% of the total contract value demand by the contract award committee of the NNPC from the foreign contractors.  I informed my superior who is the Honorable Minister of Petroleum Resources, Group Managing Director (GMD NNPC) and two other Director-General whose duty it is to oversee daily activities of the corporation.
I seek advice from the Honorable Minister of her opinion over the discovered fund and she mandated that I should use my position as the chairman of the federal contract review committee, to source for a trustworthy foreigner whose account can be used to claim this fund for our collective interest.
All we are looking for is a trustworthy person and honest partner whom we can use his company or individual account to get this outstanding fund remitted overseas. We therefore, request you to act on our behalf to ensure the success of this transaction, hoping you will assist us. As a matter of fact, all modalities for the successful of this deal have been perfectly been worked out accordingly also considering the esteem people involved.
Once we are convinced of your capacity to handle these deal we will then provide you with all necessary information\ modalities including the unmentioned amount involved.
Do to nature of this mail all reply should be sent to only this Email:
Sincerely yours,
Best regards,
Elder Paul Oshohi Osaro

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