joewein.net   joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days
  jwSpamSpy

Home
About Us
Spam
419/Nigeria
Fraud
Contact

"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: "Mr Sarpong Pinkra" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <sarpong.pinkra@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 3 Nov 2017 16:23:04 -0700
Subject: I Have A Business Proposal For You

My friend indeed,
 
 
My name is Mr. Pinkra Sarpong i am a retired banker one of Leading Bank in Ghana West Africa, also a christian and i do not want problems but i just hope you can assist me. I write you this letter in good faith, i have a transaction of four million five hundred and twenty thousand Great Britain Pounds:(4,520,000.00).
 
 
I realized this fund from a foreign client who deposited a huge sum of money(4,520,000.00) with our bank in escrow account where nobody will have access to it; even the bank does not have access to this account because it cannot be deducted; until after the transfer. Eventually this client is among the victims of the car accident that crashed on the 31-10-2008 in Kumasi road Ghana, but since then we have not had any body coming for the claims as the closest relatives..
 
 
Finally i did not declare this fund to the bank before my retirement. i am contacting you, to stand as the beneficiary of this fund because only a foreigner can stand as the beneficiary, can i trust you to hold this money for me until i come over to your country? after the transfer, i will give you 30% of the money as your commission.
 
 
If you accept my offer, but if you do not accept this offer kindly forget that i contacted you, all i need is for you to get a good current account where this fund can be transferred into and for you to stand as the beneficiary of the said amount; within three days the funds will be transferred to your designated bank account.
 
 
There are practically no risks involved; it will be a bank-to-bank transfer. i hope you understand my situation, i am critically ill that is why i contacted you to finalize this transaction to enable me have a very good treatment.
 
 
May god bless you  and your family. i wait your urgent reply
 
 
Happily regards,
 
Mr. Pinkra Sarpong.

Anti-fraud resources: