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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: "Mr. Desmond Patterson" <cougar68@wideband.net.au>
Reply-To: d58834766@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 03 Apr 2023 20:21:19 +0100
Subject: Best Regard



--
Best regards!

This mail may be a surprise to you because you did not give me the
permission to do so and neither do you know me but before I tell you
about myself I want you to please forgive me for sending this mail
without your permission. I am writing this letter in confidence
believing that if it is the will of God for you to help me and my
family, God almighty will bless and reward you abundantly. I need an
honest and trustworthy person like you to entrust this huge transfer
project unto.

My name is Mr Desmond Patterson, The Branch Manager of a Financial
Institution. I got your contact through a reliable source called
database through Ghana chamber of commerce. I am a Ghanaian married with
3 kids. I am writing to solicit your assistance in the transfer of
US$12,500,000.00 Dollars. This fund is the excess of what my branch in
which I am the manager made as profit just last year (i.e. 2022
financial year). After I submitted an annual report for the last year
24th December 2022 to my head office in Accra-Ghana, I watched with keen
interest as they never knew of this excess. I placed this amount of
US$12,500,000.00 Dollars on an Escrow Coded account without a
beneficiary (Anonymous) to avoid a trace.

As an officer of the bank, I cannot be directly connected to this money
thus I am impelled to request for your assistance to receive this money
into your bank account on my behalf. I agree that 40% of this money will
be for you as a foreign partner, in respect to the provision of a
foreign account, and 60% would be for me and I will join you in your
country once the fund arrives in your account for an Investment plan. I
do need to stress that there is practically no risk involved in this.
It's going to be a bank-to-bank transfer OR E-online Transfer. All I
need from you is to stand as the original depositor of this fund so that
the fund can be transferred to your account.

If you accept this offer, I will appreciate your timely response to
me.This is why and the only reason why I contacted you, I am willing to
go into partnership investment with you owing to your wealth of
experience, So please if you are interested to assist on this venture
kindly contact me back for a brief discussion on how to proceed.

All correspondence must be via my private E-mail(d58834766@gmail.com)
for obvious security reasons.

Best regards,
Mr Desmond Patterson,

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