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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: "Larry James" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <larrijames1@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2015 09:02:00 -0400
Subject: PLEASE, IT IS IMPORTANT

Attn: Please,
My name is Mr. Larry James an audit contractor. Last year we were contracted by the African Union to auditing on African Banks in control of issues in money Laundering, Scam, and Bank Fraud with the African Government that has being going on. I am a citizen of Ghana and presently in Nigeria.
Sorry for not having the pleasure of knowing your mindset before making you this offer and it is utterly confidential and genuine by virtue of its nature. I write to solicit your cooperation in allowing this sum US$20M be received into your account for our mutual benefits.
This fund was stashed out from the funds we recovered during our auditing with African Banks last year. So far, I have already submitted an approved end of the year report to the African Union and I have since then, placed this amount on a Non-Investment Account without a beneficiary with International Commercial Bank Plc Accra Ghana waiting for this time when the ICB will be having their International pay out bills. And I seek your partnership to humbly and sincerely work with me have this fund received into your account for our mutual benefits.
Upon your response, I will make arrangement with an insider of the Bank to configure your name on the Central Computer database under better arrangement as the holder of the Non-Investment Account and I will then guide you on how to apply for the Account Closure/ bank-to-bank remittance of the funds to your designated bank account.
 
Why I have contacted you is because we came across a detailed fund claim in your name without good measures and we were able to discover that this fund does not originally belonged to you after much scrutiny and we also believed that some people may have wanted to use your name to claim some funds with African Government but due to their inabilities, they were unable to realize this fund before this event..
Not withstanding, we were able to recovered and return some funds to the AU after studding some foreign payment files, which most of their claims were not genuine and clearly stated since they have not good source of origin in the case of some malpractices by some Government officials trying to siphon Government funds with the help of their foreign partners,
Therefore, since you have been established as one of foreign beneficiaries with African Government, it will be easy to forward this claim in your favour as the true beneficiary , I would want your confidential cooperation to have this fund wired into your account and after that, we will share the proceeds 50-50, If you concur with this proposal.
 
Reply ASAP.
 
Thanks,
Chairman Committee Mr. Larry James.,
 

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