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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: "Mr. Benjamin Opoku" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <benjaminop@zoho.com>
Date: Sat, 25 Jun 2016 01:54:58 -0300
Subject: Hello! reply asap.,

Dear sir/madam,

My name is Mr. Benjamin Opoku, I am a newly promoted Branch Manager of a Bank here in Ghana, West Africa, I got your information during my search through the Internet. It may interest you to hear that I am a man of PEACE and don't want problems, I only hope we can assist each other.

If you don't want this business offer kindly forget it yet I will not contact you again. I have packaged a financial transaction that will benefit both of us. Yes, as the Branch Manager of the Bank, it is my duty to send in a Financial Report to my head office in the capital city Accra at the end of each year.

In the course of THE LAST YEAR (2015) END OF THE YEAR REPORT, I discovered that my branch in which I am the Manager made excess profit of FOUR MILLION ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS [USD$4,150,000.00] which my head office does not know about and they will never know about it. I have already placed this fund in an ESCROW ACCOUNT so that my branch can present you to our bank head office as the ESCROW ACCOUNT HOLDER.

As an officer of the bank I cannot be directly linked to this money that is why I am contacting you for us to work together so that you can receive this fund into your bank account in your country or any other account of your choice for us to SHARE.

I am offering you 30% of the total fund, while you keep 65% for me in your bank account till I join you in your country for the sharing/investment of my own share of the funds or better still we can go into a joint partnership venture, I will appreciate it very much.

The remaining 5% will be used to refund all expenses incurred in the course of this transaction. NOTE: All expenses will be refunded first before we share what is left in the agreed percentage. As soon as you reply me, I will give you more details on how we can proceed.

Sincerely,
Mr. Benjamin Opoku.

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