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.

 

 

Fraud email example:

From: mikeato@zipmail.com.br
Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2005 07:15:54 -0800
Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Hoping=20For=20Your=20Perfect=20Understanding=21?=

Dear Valued Friend.

My name is Mr. Mike Ato, the Eastern Regional Branch Manager of the International
Commercial Bank ltd Ghana, in West Africa.I do not want problems but I just
hope you can assist me. I write you this letter in good faith.

I am in control of the sum of one million, eight hundred and fifty thousand
US dollars ($1,850,000.00) which was an excess of profit made by our regional
eastern branch office in the last quarter of the year 2004, which I have
carefully placed in an Escrow Call Deposit Account and did not declare this
to my head office.

Can I really trust you to hold this money for me until I arrive your country
and pick it up myself and you deduct 30% of the total money as your commission.
If you accept my offer you can contact me immediately. If you do not accept
can you forget I contacted you?

All I need is for you to get me a good current account where I can move
this money.I will discretly give you all the information concerning the
account so that you can apply to the bank for the release of the money.
There is practically no risk involved, it will be a bank to bank transfer.

I hope you will understand my situation.

Thank you and God bless.
Truly Yours
Mike



------------------------------------------
Use o melhor sistema de busca da Internet
Radar UOL - http://www.radaruol.com.br



Anti-fraud resources: