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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: Otabil Mensah <griswoldleads@psgleads.com>
Reply-To: otabilmensahh1@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 17 Jul 2015 12:33:07 +0000
Subject: I Need Your Assistance




Dear Friend,
Good day to you and your family.

Before I tell you about myself I want you to please forgive me for
sending this mail without your permission.

My name is Mr Mensah Otabil, The Bank Manager of a Financial
Institution. I am a Ghanaian married with 3 kids, I am writing to
solicit your assistance in the transfer of US$7,500,000.00 Dollars
into your account. their is an excess funds i discovered in my branch
as profit last year, this subject funds was discovered after i have
already submitted an annual report for that last year 2014 financial
year to my head office in Accra-Ghana, ever since then i have watched
with keen interest as my bank will never know of this excess, so i
have since placed this amount of $7,500,000.00 US Dollars on an Escrow
Coded account without a beneficiary (Anonymous) to avoid trace.

Note that, as an officer of the bank, I cannot be directly connected
to the fund which make me to request for your assistance to receive
the fund into your bank account as a foreign partner , then we invest
the funds in your country, I want to assure you that their is no risk
involved. It's going to be a bank-to- bank transfer.

All I need from you is to stand as the depositor of the funds so that
my bank can transfer the funds to your account, I agree that we share
the funds 40% for you and 60% for me, also my 60% share will also be
invested in your country under your care.

Please keep this matter as top secret between us, Kindly get back to
me in this id( otabilmensahh1@gmail.com ) for a brief discussion on
how to proceed.

Regards
Mensah.

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