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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: ahmed said <private4ahmedsaid@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2011 23:09:40 -0800
Subject: Building a Relationship with you


Hello my Friend,

My name is El- Ahmed Atif al-Hasiya, Personal financial secretary to
the late president of Libya (Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi) and the
officer in charge of his personal business transactions. I was in the
middle of a business transaction with some Russian partners who are to
sell petroleum products to us for my boss’s refinery in Ahbu Dabbi,
and a gold seller who was supposed to deliver a shipment of Gold from
Egypt to us in Dubai, But just before the deal was sealed the so
called Arab Awakening like the western world will call it came to play
and we had to put everything on hold hoping that the country will come
back to a state of normalcy so that we can continue the deal and
finish up. But as it is we can’t see things going back to normal
anytime but thanks be to Allah that things have come back to normal.

The funds needed for these transactions were deposited in an
offshore account for the sole purpose of these deals. But as it is
right now it will be very risky for me or my boss to do any paper
signing as the US government and the EU is watching everything that is
going on around my boss which also includes me. The rebels have been
searching for me ever since this war started so I am laying low right
now in one of the Arab nations I can’t disclose my location to you on
this email maybe with time I will.

Before the death of (Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi) he instructed me
through a phone call to use the funds in my possession to yield profit
so that his family can take care of themselves if he dies during the
fight or gets arrested. But as it is I cannot go about my normal life
as the US and the western world are out looking for all those that
work for him. And that is the reason why I am sending this email to
you today. I will need your help to be able to buy products with the
money we have in our offshore account to avoid it been traced to us.
We are ready to pay you a good percentage for all deals carried out by
you. If you agree to work with us I will instruct the bank to pay all
funds in the account to you as our business partner who has delivered
products to us worth the amount in the account. So that you can have
direct access to the funds whenever you are handling a deal and
payment of any amount Is required. But you will have to report to us
on every deal you are going into with these funds and without our
acceptance you cannot go one with it.

looking forward to getting a reply from you.

Best Regards
El- Ahmed Atif al-Hasiya.

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