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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: "ALHAJI BUNU FAROUK" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <faroukbunu4@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:32:24 -0700
Subject: PLEASE CLARIFY THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION

>From the Desk of: Alhaji Bunu Farouk.

ATTENTION OF: BONAFIDE BENEFICIARY.

By legislative resolution reached on 13th July 2009 following the
complaint and petition received by the Office of the President and
Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
(ALHAJI UMARU USMAN YARADUA) from foreign beneficiaries over the
non-payment of their claims, this presidential commission on fact finding
and foreign payment was inaugurated to release immediately all the payment
that have received approval like yours.

We are pleased to inform you that we have verified every aspect of your
payment and have submitted a written report to the President of Nigeria,
the House of Senate and the Federal House of Representative sub committees
on Finance and Foreign Payment. We are going to transfer your payment upon
receiving your confirmation because we are confused on which account to
make the transfer into as we received a Scotland Bank Account details from
this man whose passport photograph appeared below claiming to be the
rightful beneficiary thereby contradicting your earlier account detail in
our data bank.

PLEASE CLARIFY THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION

(1). Did you at any point transfer your right of ownership to one
MR. THOMAS G. HENDERSON , to claim and receive the payment on your behalf?

(2). His claim was backed with a “Deed of Agreement “in his favour
thereby indicating the fund destination to the following account. Account
name: THOMAS G. HENDERSON, Account No: 01028732 Bank Name: BANK OF
SCOTLAND, Swift Code: BOFSGB2S are you aware of this?

You are required as a matter of urgency to confirm the legitimacy of the
above claim and the reason for such change. In event you did not authorize
such claim, please confirm to us immediately by way of application for
contract payment stating your authentic account details, contract number
and amount for the authentication and normalization through the above
E-mail. All letters must be attention to the Chairman of the Commission
ALHAJI BUNU FAROUK. You are required to submit this authentication before
the transfer will be effected as we are bound to recognize THOMAS G.
HENDERSON’S claim and release the payment if we do not receive your
submission to this enquiry as quickly as possible.


ALHAJI BUNU FAROUK
Chairman of the Commission
bunuf6@gmail.com

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