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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: Azzia Mohammad <aazzia.mohammad@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 26 Apr 2015 15:03:47 +0000
Subject: Greetings My Dear Friend,

Greetings My Dear Friend,

Before I introduce myself, I wish to inform you that this letter is not
a hoax mail and I urgent you to treat it serious. This letter must come to
you as a big surprise, but I believe it is only a day that people meet and
become great friends and business partners.



Please I want you to read this letter very carefully and I must apologize
for barging this message into your mail box without any formal introduction
due to the urgency and confidentiality of this business and I know that
this message will come to you as a surprise. Please this is not a joke and
I will not like you to joke with it ok, with due respect to your person and
much sincerity of purpose, I make this contact with you as I believe that
you can be of great assistance to me. My name is Mr. Azzia Mohammad, from
Burkina Faso, West Africa.



I work in African Development Bank (ADB) as telex manager, please see this
as a confidential message and do not reveal it to another person and let me
know whether you can be of assistance regarding my proposal below because
it is top secret. I am about to retire from active Banking service to start
a new life but I am skeptical to reveal this particular secret to a
stranger.



You must assure me that everything will be handled confidentially because
we are not going to suffer again in life. It has been 10 years now that
most of the greedy African Politicians used our bank to launder money
overseas through the help of their Political advisers. Most of the funds
which they transferred out of the shores of Africa were gold and oil money
that was supposed to have been used to develop the continent. Their
Political advisers always inflated the amounts before transferring to
foreign accounts, so I also used the opportunity to divert part of the
funds hence I am aware that there is no official trace of how much was
transferred as all the accounts used for such transfers were being closed
after transfer.



I acted as the Bank Officer to most of the politicians and when I
discovered that they were using me to succeed in their greedy act; I also
cleaned some of their banking records from the Bank files and no one cared
to ask me because the money was too much for them to control. They
laundered over $5billion Dollars during the process.



Before I send this message to you, I have already diverted ($17.4million
Dollars) to an escrow account belonging to no one in the bank. The bank is
anxious now to know who the beneficiary to the funds is because they have
made a lot of profits with the funds. It is more than Eight years now and
most of the politicians are no longer using our bank to transfer funds
overseas. The ($17.4million Dollars) has been laying waste in our bank and
I don't want to retire from the bank without transferring the funds to a
foreign account to enable me share the proceeds with the receiver (a
foreigner). The money will be shared 60% for me and 40% for you. There is
no one coming to ask you about the funds because I secured everything.



I only want you to assist me by providing a reliable bank account where the
funds can be transferred. You are not to face any difficulties or legal
implications as I am going to handle the transfer personally. If you are
capable of receiving the funds, do let me know immediately to enable me
give you a detailed information on what to do. For me, I have not stolen
the money from anyone because the other people that took the whole money
did not face any problems. This is my chance to grab my own life
opportunity but you must keep the details of the funds secret to avoid any
leakages as no one in the bank knows about the my plans.



Please get back to me if you are interested and capable to handle this
project, I shall intimate you on what to do when I hear from your
confirmation and acceptance. If you are capable of being my trusted
associate, do declare your consent to me.



I am looking forward to hear from you immediately for further information.

Thanks with my best regards.

Mr. Azzia Mohammad

Telex Manager

African Development Bank (ADB)

Burkina Faso.

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